Advertising

Ad blocking made Google throw its toys out of the pram – and now even more control is being taken from us

Column We need regulations on web advertising

Security14 Dec 2020 | 186

Arriving in 2021, the UK's Digital Markets Unit 'could' start to do something about the power of online ad giants

But Parliament seems a bit busy at the moment to legislate

Science27 Nov 2020 | 18

Who watches the watchers? Samsung does so it can fling ads at owners of its smart TVs

Customers forgot they are the product when splashing out on a nice telly

Security30 Sep 2020 | 135

This'll upset the Apple cart: 1,200 iOS apps downloaded 300 million times a month include 'ad fraud' code

Updated Synk accuses China-based Mintegral of distributing malicious SDK

Personal Tech24 Aug 2020 | 14

Glum Alphabet execs look up from red-ink ad figures. What will we do, they ask. Ahem, coughs Google Cloud

Chocolate Factory's as-a-service stuff grows as advertising, profit takes a tumble

SaaS31 Jul 2020 | 7

Australia sues Google over data collection practices that merged DoubleClick data to create single user profiles

Alleges opt-in that promised “more control” actually sent more data without informed consent. Google 'strongly disagrees'

Legal27 Jul 2020 | 15

No one can compete with Google... unless it opens its click-and-query data to rivals, says UK markets watchdog

Sharing's caring

On-Prem02 Jul 2020 | 1

The incumbent President of the United States of America ran now-banned Facebook ads loaded with Nazi references

We wanted flying cars and space travel for 2020 but instead we got re-runs of fascist propaganda

Personal Tech18 Jun 2020 | 156

Better late than never... Google Chrome to kill off 'tiny' number of mobile web ads that gobble battery, CPU power

Could have done with this years ago to stave off rise of advert blockers but fine, OK, whatever, now it's coming

Personal Tech14 May 2020 | 34

'A' is for ad money oddly gone missing: Probe finds middlemen siphon off half of online advertising spend

'B' is for basic controls that up and disappeared

Personal Tech07 May 2020 | 38

Quibi, JetBlue, Wish, others accused of leaking millions of email addresses to ad orgs via HTTP referer headers

From URL to UR-Hell

Security30 Apr 2020 | 8

Google says no more shady anonymous web ads – if you want your billboard up, you've got to show us some valid ID

Um, it wasn't doing this already? That explains a lot

Personal Tech23 Apr 2020 | 29

Twitter takes away twits' ability to limit ad data sharing – after telling investors its own privacy settings hurt revenue

Except you in Europe and UK, you still get to control over analytics fuel

Personal Tech09 Apr 2020 | 24

Decent, legal, honest and searchable: C'mon, Ofcom. Let us check up on the ad-slingers ourselves

Column It's a hard job... why not outsource it?

Legal21 Feb 2020 | 29

From WordPad to WordAds: Microsoft caught sneaking nagging Office promos into venerable text editor beta

Hidden for now, probably coming to a desktop near you, soon, ish

Software22 Jan 2020 | 114

Fuming French monopoly watchdog is so incensed by Google's 'random' web ad rules, it's fining the US giant, er, <1% annual profit

Payer cette petite amende, s'il vous plaît

Personal Tech20 Dec 2019 | 38

TAG, you're s*!t: Internet advertising industry bods admit self-policing approach is a sham

Special report Meanwhile: Trustworthy Accountability Group CEO dismisses ax-grinding critics

Personal Tech30 Sep 2019 | 27

Brave accuses Google of trampling Europe's GDPR with stealthy netizen-stalking adverts

Our ads? Stomping on people's privacy? Never! Not us! sobs search giant

Security04 Sep 2019 | 22

Developer reconsiders npm command-line ad caper after outcry

Effort to help fund open-source projects proves too much

Software30 Aug 2019 | 34

Maltese browser game biz flings €1m sueball at Google over Adsense kerfuffle

Claims to have made nearly €800k from ad clicks

On-Prem29 Aug 2019 | 33

How dodgy browser plugins, web scripts can silently rewrite that URL you were about to hit – and throw you into an internet wormhole

Analysis Clickjacking code found on sites with 43 million daily visits total

Security15 Aug 2019 | 37

Facebook chucks 1.5 hours' profit at Citizens Advice anti-scam charity to defuse consumer champ's defamation suit

Meanwhile, UK users still first line of defence against fake ads

Legal16 Jul 2019 | 20

UK competition bods to stick probe into worrying lack of said competition in online advertising

Facebook, Google have a reason to be worried

Legal05 Jul 2019 | 16

The seven deadly sins of the 2010s: No, not pride, sloth, etc. The seven UI 'dark patterns' that trick you into buying stuff

Present in more than 1 in 10 top websites (and yes, greed covers them all)

Personal Tech26 Jun 2019 | 137

Google takes the PIS out of advertising: New algo securely analyzes shared encrypted data sets without leaking contents

Plus: MongoDB crams end-to-end crypto into database tech

Security19 Jun 2019 | 11

Egg on North Face: Wikipedia furious after glamp-wear giant swaps article pics for sneaky ad shots – and even brags about it in a video

Updated 'We hacked the results to reach one of the most difficult places: The top of the world’s largest search engine'

Bootnotes29 May 2019 | 79

Google relents slightly in ad-blocker crackdown – for paid-up enterprise Chrome users, everyone else not so much

Freeloaders will be limited to less capable content filtering

Software29 May 2019 | 76

Apple arms web browser privacy torpedo, points it directly at Google's advertising model

Safari tech ready to be ignored by online ad giants like all other privacy proposals

Software22 May 2019 | 38

UK watchdog slaps 'misleading' Voda ad: Gigafast... maybe so – but not for £23

Virgin complaint upheld

Networks17 Apr 2019 | 31

Facebook ad platform discriminates all on its own, say boffins

Bigots, racists and haters rejoice! You are going to get bias out of the box

Personal Tech04 Apr 2019 | 49

Carphone Warehouse thwacked by UK Advertising watchdog for a Cyber Monday wobble

Customers spared from buying an iPhone while credit scoring system had a lie-down

Legal20 Mar 2019 | 18

UK's ICO event on targeted ads opens floor to the adtech industry: Anybody? No? Speak for 10 minutes. Hello?

How to wind up your opponents 101: Refuse to engage

Security07 Mar 2019 | 14

BT 'UK's most powerful Wi-Fi'? Why, fie, for shame! – ads watchdog

Blood hath been shed 'ere now. Take that claim down anon, orders ASA

Networks27 Feb 2019 | 70

Chrome ad, content blockers beg Google: Don't execute our code! Wait, no, do execute our code – just don't kill us!

Worried devs list Manifest v3 problems they need tweaked

Software20 Feb 2019 | 32

Europe taps Facebook, Google, Twitter on the shoulder. So about those promises to stamp out lies, bots, dodgy ads?

Internet giants hand in their homework – here's a summary

Legal30 Jan 2019 | 22

Gripe to UK, Ireland, Poland: Ad tech industry inhales, then 'leaks' sensitive info on our health, politics, religion

Regulators asked to tackle 'systemic' GDPR breaches

Legal28 Jan 2019 | 24

Facebook's pay-for-more-eyeballs shtick looks too good to be true: Page views, Likes from 'fake' profiles

Analysis Small biz raises doubts over value of social network's ad tech

On-Prem14 Jan 2019 | 28

This July, Google will weep for there are no more worlds to banhammer: 'Bad ads' to be blocked globally

Advertising giant insists annoying banners are rare... and killable by Chrome

Software09 Jan 2019 | 22

Google: All right, screw it, from this Christmas, Chrome will block ALL adverts on dodgy sites

Enough with the abusive ads, says ad-dependent biz

Personal Tech05 Nov 2018 | 40

Euro eggheads call it: Facebook political ads do change voters' minds – and they worked rather well for Trump in 2016

'Brexit and the election of Donald might be largely due to the use of data analytics'

Legal24 Oct 2018 | 83

So Brave: Browser biz sics Brit watchdogs on Google's info slurpage

Software maker and allies demand regulatory strike on behavioral advertising

Personal Tech13 Sep 2018 | 12

Google skewered in ad sting after Oracle-backed bods turn troll

Search giant complains of misrepresentation, database titan raises an eyebrow

Legal05 Sep 2018 | 32

Facebook flat-out 'lies' about how many people can see its ads – lawsuit

'Made-up PR numbers' used by social giant to exaggerate online advertising audience

On-Prem17 Aug 2018 | 62

Google's Alphabet hit by Europe's other GDPR: Global Domination = Profit Reduction

Net income for Q2 slashed by $5bn Android antitrust fine

SaaS23 Jul 2018 | 23

Facebook tells users to report crappy customer service from advertisers

Threatens to ban ads from businesses with low marks

Personal Tech12 Jun 2018 | 19

New Facebook political ad rules: Now you must prove your ID before undermining democracy

The horse is a speck on the horizon – but at least the barn door now has a bolt on it

Personal Tech24 May 2018 | 24

Mobile app devs have, oh, about 9 hours left to decide whether to stay on Google's ad platform

GDPR is their problem apparently

Legal24 May 2018 | 42

Top UK court to rule whether 4.5m Brit iPhone fanbois can sue Google over cookies

A tale of lawyer-funding venture capitalists and Mountain View

Personal Tech23 May 2018 | 12

Cisco cancels all YouTube ads, then conceals cancellation

Blog post shamed video vault, has since been ‘reposted as intended'

On-Prem11 May 2018 | 53

US Congress finally emits all 3,000 Russian 'troll' Facebook ads. Let's take a look at some

Pics Sub-literate, inept, and mostly highly divisive

Personal Tech10 May 2018 | 113

Google will vet political ads to ward off Phantom Menace of fake news

Mountain View's Empire Strikes Back against election meddling

Legal04 May 2018 | 36

The spies that knew too much about Facebook's advertising network

Analysis Despite transparency push, the social network still scorns ad data aggregators

Personal Tech03 May 2018 | 7

What could Facebook possibly do next to reassure privacy fears? Yup – make a dating app

F8 We have all been trolled

Personal Tech01 May 2018 | 58

Publishers tell Google: We're not your consent lackeys

GDP-argh! Trade groups say ad biz must clarify data use, take share of liability

Legal01 May 2018 | 34

Brit MPs brand Facebook a 'great vampire squid' out for cash

Zuck's CTO adds to PR apologies in Parliament

Legal27 Apr 2018 | 37

Google Pixel 2 XL: Like paying Apple-tier prices then saying, hey, please help yourself to my data

Special report Nice camera, and Android without OEM crapware, though

Personal Tech26 Apr 2018 | 142