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Online Ads Can Infect Your Device with Spyware (www.scientificamerican.com)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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An investigative report reveals that new spyware can slip in unseen through online ads—and there is currently no defense against it. So not only that online ads are intrusive and can infect devices through malware, they can also be used for spying.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Even better: Thanks to ad tracking you can show specific malware to a specific cohort of people. Want to get spyware on every computer in DC? Just sign up for our ad program!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

This sort of creepitude isn't even specific to online ads.

You know postal junk mail? The "direct marketing" companies that enable it will cheerfully sell you a list of the home addresses of people meeting any demographic characteristics you want.

Do you have reason to want a list of 18-25-year-old gay men in the Boston area, widowed Asians in San Francisco, or military veterans in Oklahoma City? With their names, ages, and their home addresses?

They can sell you one, perfectly legally, and it's not even that expensive.