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Weird Nexus Ads


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Since I turned off my ad blocker on the Nexus, I've been getting some really odd advertisements.  For the last few weeks I've been getting this...

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... and now I'm getting ads for networking software... in German.  Does Google think I'm an ultra-conservative German or does the Nexus really get ads this close to the bottom of the barrel?  I guess I'll VPN my way to Europe and browse the Nexus there to see what I get. 

 

I really hope Google isn't misunderstanding me that badly, that doesn't bode well for their insane amount of data and "targetted" approach.

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You have got to be fricking kidding me!  I've turned off my adblocker for the Nexus too, at Dark0ne's request, and I'd better not be seeing that sort of thing. 

 

Actually, I did get a pretty sleazy looking advert essentially asking if I'd like to associate with any lonely supermodels in their underwear, in my area.  There may indeed be some barrel scraping going on.  Luckily, my browser is usually armed to the teeth, and google knows very little about my habits :ninja:, so I'm hoping that mild sleaze is just their default opening gambit.

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Luckily those have mostly disappeared, I actually had to refresh a few times before seeing it on the main page of all places. I hope it's just Google being stupid because that might turn off a lot of people visiting the site for the first few times. Unfortunately Google has a lot on me, although I've turned off every tracking thing they let me and use Ghostery everywhere.

 

Now I'm mostly seeing MMO and other videogame ads, but I'm still going to pass this on to Dark0ne and see if he can't do anything about it.

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I think that's a good idea. Being serious, I actually doubt that this is being served up as a result of google profiling, and is more likely just the result of one well-paying sponsor accepted by the Nexus. If that's true then they need to be warned, otherwise they deserve to have their ads blocked, IMO.

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The weird thing is that following the link (and making them pay the Nexus! Ha!) takes you to a not very good looking website with not much more than some Bible passages, unborn babies, and a mailing list signup, but I guess that's all they need to start riling people up.

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I think that's just a side affect of using add-blockers. Since the scripts don't run when they are disabled, they aren't collecting enough data on you. When you do enable them and they don't have enough data, it pretty much becomes random crap advertisements until they get at least some reasonable amout of data in which to start truly targeting adds.

 

Personally, I use a hosts file that redirects a ton of sites to localhost, so I can enable my add blocker for sites to support, but if the advertiser is in that list, I don't get messages about having adds blocked, and I still don't get them. :P Kind of cheating, but there is just too much data collection going on for my tastes.

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There's some big money behind some of these wacky groups and their chauvinistic dogma, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them targeting young people on gaming sites. The Nexus should not be complicit. I've got no problem with people being morally opposed to abortion - it's a very thorny debate - but blasting me with fundamentalist dogma while I'm browsing fantasy video games will get you turned off quick!

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I think that's just a side affect of using add-blockers. Since the scripts don't run when they are disabled, they aren't collecting enough data on you. When you do enable them and they don't have enough data, it pretty much becomes random crap advertisements until they get at least some reasonable amout of data in which to start truly targeting adds.

 

Personally, I use a hosts file that redirects a ton of sites to localhost, so I can enable my add blocker for sites to support, but if the advertiser is in that list, I don't get messages about having adds blocked, and I still don't get them. :P Kind of cheating, but there is just too much data collection going on for my tastes.

Any chance you could post your hosts file (or the relevant part at least), I'd definitely be interested in doing this.  I agree that there's way too much being done but to be honest I don't see the government doing anything effective about it, especially given the international nature of the Internet.
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I like to hope that eventually a smart generation that understands the implications will make it a political issue.

One would hope so.  I have a feeling that the next couple decades are going to be particularly interesting for a number of reasons.
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I think that's just a side affect of using add-blockers. Since the scripts don't run when they are disabled, they aren't collecting enough data on you. When you do enable them and they don't have enough data, it pretty much becomes random crap advertisements until they get at least some reasonable amout of data in which to start truly targeting adds.

 

Personally, I use a hosts file that redirects a ton of sites to localhost, so I can enable my add blocker for sites to support, but if the advertiser is in that list, I don't get messages about having adds blocked, and I still don't get them. :P Kind of cheating, but there is just too much data collection going on for my tastes.

Any chance you could post your hosts file (or the relevant part at least), I'd definitely be interested in doing this.  I agree that there's way too much being done but to be honest I don't see the government doing anything effective about it, especially given the international nature of the Internet.
https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

EDIT: Wow, new update just month ago

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Don't hosts files screw up formatting on some websites? I remember this being a case a couple of years ago when I used a custom hosts file.

You asked a wrong question, the host file itself has nothing to do with site content, (Ha! It even doesn't know anything about www :P ) it only intercepts connections to the bad guys.

The problem is: some sites design & formatting relies of ads/other stuff which may be blocked by that hosts file. If so, they may look weird BUT I personally haven't ever stumbled upon such website

 

The short answer: no, it won't screw up anything.

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