zlacker

[parent] [thread] 6 comments
1. prophe+(OP)[view] [source] 2026-02-03 06:38:30
> No, the illegal-ness doesn't come from the clicking, it comes from the fact you're clicking with the intention of defrauding someone. That's also why filling out a credit card application isn't illegal, but filling out the same credit card application with phony details is.

You might technically be right. But I'd recommend contacting EFF, if, somehow, installing AdNauseam brings you into legal trouble.

On the realm of search engines and ad networks I love to remind people that Google took out "don't be evil" from their motto and pressured anyone within US jurisdiction to remove Page and Brin's appendix #8 (at the least it's removed from their original school of Stanford).

8 Appendix A: Advertising and Mixed Motives https://www.site.uottawa.ca/~stan/csi5389/readings/google.pd...

replies(2): >>deaux+eK >>Bizarr+cF2
2. deaux+eK[view] [source] 2026-02-03 12:31:31
>>prophe+(OP)
http://infolab.stanford.edu/pub/papers/google.pdf

stanford.edu, and the appendix is there. In fact on the link you gave the appendix is cut short - looks like an OCR/copying issue but then at a glance it doesn't seem to happen elsewhere which is a little suspicious. I'm not sure what you're talking about.

replies(1): >>prophe+q11
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3. prophe+q11[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-02-03 14:18:23
>>deaux+eK
I must have somehow missed that one; glad that ancient site without HTTPS is still up. Here are the two top results I get from searching for it from Stanford[0][1], and you can see that this section of the appendix is missing. Google's also has it missing[2]. So no, I don't think I'm crazy.

[0] http://ilpubs.stanford.edu:8090/361/1/1998-8.pdf

[1] https://snap.stanford.edu/class/cs224w-readings/Brin98Anatom...

[1] https://research.google/pubs/the-anatomy-of-a-large-scale-hy...

replies(1): >>deaux+Mt3
4. Bizarr+cF2[view] [source] 2026-02-03 21:31:09
>>prophe+(OP)
Even if they are wrong:

1: Ad companies are not going to go after individual users, rather they would target the maker of any such plugin

2: If they did go after an individual user, they would have to prove damages, and an individual is unlikely to do more than a few bucks of wasted ad spend for a company, not even a rounding error, making the legal cost and political cost of targeting the person running the script enormous compared to the potential return from anything other than a grand slam nuclear judgement in their favor.

replies(1): >>prophe+6k3
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5. prophe+6k3[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-02-04 01:24:18
>>Bizarr+cF2
1) The makers of this plugin are from EFF, and thus have the time and resources to combat litigation.

2) Yep! And as mentioned in other threads, it would give the users on their ad platform more money but degrade the quality of their ad platform.

I was just alarmed by how many people are not only okay with, but defending, the current state of ad tech. I think it's a noble effort to go against the grain and withstand any potential legal trouble to subvert it as it seems there's no recourse to be made in the courts unless an entity has the aforementioned time and money to fight it in the courts.

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6. deaux+Mt3[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-02-04 02:35:19
>>prophe+q11
Just clicked on your first link. The appendix is there? Page 18 of the PDF.
replies(1): >>prophe+IL3
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7. prophe+IL3[view] [source] [discussion] 2026-02-04 05:29:49
>>deaux+Mt3
Touché! I recant my conspiratorial thinking. Though I still think it's odd that the other sources I posted don't have it; one is what's actually being taught in Stanford courses and the other is Google's own hosting of their founders' paper.
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