AdNauseam

{{Short description|Internet ad blocker and auto clicker}} {{about|the browser extension|the Latin term|Ad nauseam||Ad nauseam (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox software | title = AdNauseam | logo = AdNauseam icon.svg | logo alt = Logo of AdNauseam | logo size = 64px | collapsible =  | screenshot =  | screenshot upright = | screenshot size = | screenshot alt = | caption = | other_names = | author = {{plist| * Daniel Howe * Helen Nissenbaum * Mushon Zer-Aviv }} | developer = {{plist| * Daniel Howe * Sally Chen<ref name="GitHub readme">{{cite web |title=dhowe/AdNauseam |url=https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/tree/dc29e4fb9c071a16b9b0564f7c5811db9b84b7e9 |access-date=22 December 2024 |language=en |date=29 September 2024 |via=GitHub}}</ref> * Alberto Harres<ref name="GitHub readme" /> }} | released = 2014 | ver layout =  | discontinued =  | latest release version = | latest release date =  | latest preview version = | latest preview date =  | repo = {{URL|https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam}} | qid = | programming language = | middleware = | engine =  | operating system = | platform = {{plainlist| * Mozilla Firefox * Google Chrome }} | included with = | replaces = | replaced_by = | service_name = | size = | standard = | language = | language count =  | language footnote = | genre = | license = GPLv3<ref>{{cite web |title=AdNauseam/LICENSE.txt |url=https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/blob/b5fdac90539b19a0db8f36ea537bd150edb4d9c8/LICENSE.txt |access-date=18 December 2024 |language=en |date=23 June 2014 |via=GitHub}}</ref> | website = {{URL|https://adnauseam.io}} | AsOf = }} '''AdNauseam''' is a free and open-source web browser extension that blocks Internet ads while automatically simulating clicks on them.<ref name="Thompson Nov 2015">{{cite magazine |last1=Thompson |first1=Clive |author1-link=Clive Thompson (journalist) |date=12 November 2015 |title=Baffle Web Trackers By Obfuscating Your Online Activities |url=https://www.wired.com/2015/11/clive-thompson-10/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122154121/https://www.wired.com/2015/11/clive-thompson-10/ |archive-date=22 Nov 2015 |access-date=15 December 2024 |magazine=Wired}}</ref> Created in 2014 by Daniel Howe, Helen Nissenbaum, and Mushon Zer-Aviv,<ref name="GitHub readme" /><ref name="Defer Apr 2022">{{cite web |last1=Defer |first1=Aurélien |title=Internet users are 'poisoning' their personal data in the fight against online surveillance |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2022/04/30/internet-users-are-poisoning-their-personal-data-in-the-fight-against-online-surveillance_5982052_13.html |website=Le Monde |access-date=18 December 2024 |language=en |date=30 April 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230913021424/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2022/04/30/internet-users-are-poisoning-their-personal-data-in-the-fight-against-online-surveillance_5982052_13.html |archive-date=13 September 2023 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> the software is a digital rights advocacy project that counters surveillance and data profiling employed by online advertising networks.<ref name="Thompson Nov 2015" />

The extension functions on Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.<ref name="Powles Dec 2024" /> Google banned AdNauseam from the Chrome Web Store in 2017.<ref name="Pangburn Apr 2017" /> ''MIT Technology Review'' tested AdNauseam's effectiveness with Nissenbaum in a 2021 experiment, during which Google recognized most of AdNauseam's automated ad clicks as legitimate and billed a Google Ads test account accordingly.<ref name="McGuigan Jan 2021" />

== History == Prior to AdNauseam, co-creators Daniel Howe and Helen Nissenbaum released another extension, TrackMeNot, that masked the user's web queries by sending unrelated queries to search engines.<ref name="Dale Jul 2016" /> Nissenbaum, a professor at New York University, published her book ''Obfuscation'' to explain how irrelevant data can be used to preserve user privacy.<ref name="Faife Jan 2017">{{cite web |last1=Faife |first1=Corin |date=13 January 2017 |title=Google Squashed a Chrome Extension that Flooded Ad Networks With Disinformation |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/google-squashed-a-chrome-extension-that-flooded-ad-networks-with-disinformation/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20251207015319/https://www.vice.com/en/article/google-squashed-a-chrome-extension-that-flooded-ad-networks-with-disinformation/ |archive-date=7 Dec 2025 |access-date=22 December 2024 |website=Vice}}</ref>

In 2015, according to ''The Guardian'', AdNauseam designer Mushon Zer-Aviv referred to the extension as "more art project than mass-rollout tech".<ref name="Powles Dec 2024">{{cite web |last1=Powles |first1=Julia |date=24 October 2015 |title=Obfuscation: how leaving a trail of confusion can beat online surveillance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/24/obfuscation-users-guide-for-privacy-and-protest-online-surveillance |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20151025185521/http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/24/obfuscation-users-guide-for-privacy-and-protest-online-surveillance |archive-date=25 Oct 2015 |access-date=15 December 2024 |website=The Guardian}}</ref>

Howe released version 2.0 of the extension in July 2016 at the Hackers on Planet Earth conference.<ref name="Dale Jul 2016">{{cite web |last1=Dale |first1=Brady |date=25 July 2016 |title=How to Protest Online Trackers Without Leaving Your Chair |url=https://observer.com/2016/07/adnauseum-hope-xi-daniel-howe/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160726140432/https://observer.com/2016/07/adnauseum-hope-xi-daniel-howe/ |archive-date=26 Jul 2016 |access-date=18 December 2024 |website=Observer}}</ref> Version 3.0 became available in November 2016.<ref name="Dale Jan 2017">{{cite web |last1=Dale |first1=Brady |date=5 January 2017 |title=Tracking Tricker AdNauseam Removed From the Chrome Store |url=https://observer.com/2017/01/adnauseam-google-chrome/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210825195047/https://observer.com/2017/01/adnauseam-google-chrome/ |archive-date=25 Aug 2021 |access-date=18 December 2024 |website=Observer}}</ref>

=== Ban from Chrome Web Store ===

Google banned AdNauseam from the Chrome Web Store in January 2017, citing the platform's developer agreement, which granted the company "the right to suspend or bar any Product from the Web Store at its sole discretion". When questioned by ''Fast Company'', Google denied that AdNauseam's ad-clicking functionality triggered the ban, instead claiming that AdNauseam was removed for simultaneously blocking and concealing ads—a behavior exhibited by other extensions that Google continued to allow on the platform. AdNauseam had 60,000 users at the time of the ban, and was the first ad blocking extension designed for desktop computers that was banned from the Chrome Web Store.<ref name="Pangburn Apr 2017">{{cite web |last1=Pangburn |first1=DJ |date=25 April 2017 |title=How Google Blocked A Guerrilla Fighter In The Ad War |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3068920/google-adnauseam-ad-blocking-war |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20170501111445/https://www.fastcompany.com/3068920/google-adnauseam-ad-blocking-war |archive-date=1 May 2017 |access-date=15 December 2024 |website=Fast Company}}</ref> Users were initially able to bypass the ban by installing the extension in Google Chrome's developer mode,<ref name="Dale Jan 2017" /> but Google subsequently marked AdNauseam as malware to prevent this workaround.<ref name="Claburn Jan 2017">{{cite web |last1=Claburn |first1=Thomas |date=5 January 2017 |title=Google nukes ad-blocker AdNauseam, sweeps remains out of Chrome Web Store |url=https://www.theregister.com/2017/01/05/adnauseam_expelled_from_chrome_web_store |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111171719/https://www.theregister.com/2017/01/05/adnauseam_expelled_from_chrome_web_store/ |archive-date=11 Nov 2020 |access-date=18 December 2024 |website=The Register |language=en}}</ref>

Zer-Aviv had previously anticipated the possibility of Google removing the extension<ref name="Powles Dec 2024" /> and believed that the company did so to safeguard its use of advertising as an income source. ''Fast Company'' expected a competing ad blocker to be built into Chrome that would adhere to criteria published in March 2017 by the Coalition For Better Ads – an industry group that Google co-founded – that evaluated visual appeal instead of privacy considerations.<ref name="Pangburn Apr 2017" />

== Functionality == AdNauseam blocks and repeatedly sends click events to all ads served by web domains that ignore the user's Do Not Track preference.<ref name="Pangburn Apr 2017" /><ref name="CBC Radio Apr 2018">{{cite web |date=13 April 2018 |title=Lying to Facebook could help protect your data |url=https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/spark-393-full-episode-1.4618289/lying-to-facebook-could-help-protect-your-data-1.4618292 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220427151223/https://www.cbc.ca/radio/spark/spark-393-full-episode-1.4618289/lying-to-facebook-could-help-protect-your-data-1.4618292 |archive-date=27 Apr 2022 |access-date=18 December 2024 |website=CBC Radio}}</ref> When it sends click events, AdNauseam introduces incorrect information about the user's preferences into web tracking systems used for targeted advertising, thereby impeding ad companies from profiling the user.<ref name="Faife Jan 2017" /><ref name="Defer Apr 2022" /> The auto-clicking behavior additionally forces advertisers who pay per click to incur financial costs.<ref name="CBC Radio Apr 2018" /> The extension is initially configured to click on all eligible ads, and the user can change the proportion of ads it clicks on.<ref name="McGuigan Jan 2021">{{cite web |last1=McGuigan |first1=Lee |date=6 January 2021 |title=This tool lets you confuse Google's ad network, and a test shows it works |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/06/1015784/adsense-google-surveillance-adnauseam-obfuscation/ |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210106105654/https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/01/06/1015784/adsense-google-surveillance-adnauseam-obfuscation/ |archive-date=6 Jan 2021 |access-date=22 December 2024 |website=MIT Technology Review |language=en}}</ref> AdNauseam's ad blocking feature is derived from the uBlock extension.<ref name="Claburn Jan 2017" />

In a January 2021 experiment conducted in collaboration with Nissenbaum using test accounts on the Google Ads and Google AdSense platforms, ''MIT Technology Review'' confirmed that AdNauseam's automatic clicks of Google's ads on a test website accumulated expenses for a Google Ads advertiser account and revenue for an AdSense publisher account. Google processed transactions for ads clicked by AdNauseam on browsers operated by human users and on three of four browsers automated with the Selenium toolkit. The experiment ultimately gained $100 of income for the AdSense account, which ''MIT Technology Review'' interpreted as evidence of AdNauseam's efficacy.<ref name="McGuigan Jan 2021" />

== Reception == Electronic Frontier Foundation representative Alan Toner described AdNauseam as "a piece of agitprop theater" intended to "creatively protest the surveillance mechanism behind advertising".<ref name="Pangburn Apr 2017" />

In a ''MediaPost'' opinion piece, Fox Networks Group advertising executive Joe Marchese remarked that "AdNauseam aims to screw with the ad industry in ways that just using an ad blocker doesn't", and opined that the extension, "while obviously hostile to our industry, is extremely smart". Marchese believed that the advertising industry could use AdNauseam to raise awareness of ad fraud conducted by "layers of middlemen and shady ad networks".<ref name="Marchese Oct 2014">{{cite web |last1=Marchese |first1=Joe |date=29 October 2014 |title=Here's A Nice, Scary Halloween Story For The Ad Industry |url=https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237256/heres-a-nice-scary-halloween-story-for-the-ad-in.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141102001430/https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/237256/heres-a-nice-scary-halloween-story-for-the-ad-in.html |archive-date=2 Nov 2014 |access-date=20 December 2024 |website=MediaPost |language=en}}</ref>

Sean Blanchfield, CEO of anti-adblock consulting firm PageFair, expressed concern that when AdNauseam is used, "advertisers will not be able to distinguish it from deliberate click fraud" and that "if it gains popularity with technical users, its only achievement will be to destroy the businesses that run its users' favorite websites". Anti-bot technology vendor Solve Media's CEO, Ari Jacoby, accused AdNauseam of being "designed to defraud for sport" and "a sick display of the blatant disregard that some have for the symbiotic relationship between advertising and editorial that supports a free Internet"; ''InformationWeek'' rebutted that such a relationship had already been challenged by the growth of ad blocker usage.<ref name="Claburn Oct 2014">{{cite web |last1=Claburn |first1=Thomas |date=29 October 2014 |title=Ad Clicks To Protest Online Tracking Surveillance? |url=https://www.informationweek.com/software-services/ad-clicks-to-protest-online-tracking-surveillance- |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240423070738/https://www.informationweek.com/software-services/ad-clicks-to-protest-online-tracking-surveillance- |archive-date=23 Apr 2024 |access-date=22 December 2024 |website=InformationWeek |language=en}}</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|Free and open-source software}} * Hacktivism * Privacy Badger

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Official website|https://adnauseam.io}} * {{GitHub|dhowe/AdNauseam}}

Category:Free Firefox WebExtensions Category:Google Chrome extensions Category:Ad blocking software Category:Internet privacy software Category:Software using the GNU General Public License Category:Free software programmed in JavaScript