AdNauseam FireFox Plugin

[R_Head]

I was suggested this plug in. Have anybody used it before?

AdNauseam

As online advertising is becoming more automatic, universal and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating all ad-clicks universally and blindly on behalf of the target audience. Working in coordination with Ad Block Plus, AdNauseam quietly clicks every blocked ad, registering a visit on the ad networks databases. As the data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user profiling, targeting and surveillance becomes futile.

[Snorkasaurus]

I have not tried it but here are my thoughts:

1. Addons that do not appear at mozilla.org are suspect. Not that all of the addons which do appear at mozilla.org are not suspect, but at least they appear in a location where users can evaluate and publicly review them.

2. The addon does nothing but increase personal bandwidth use unless the number of people using it reaches critical mass. Hundreds or even thousands of people running this isn't enough to put a fuzzy dent in the data collection database(s).

3. I know that there is a similar addon for Chrome (a browser I don't want to touch) called Chaff. The addon can be found here and the author can be found on EFNet IRC in his #chaff channel. I don't think this addon has been widely adopted yet either.

4. I think trying to defeat data collection externally is ultimately futile and just puts the public in a constant battle with large corporations and government to see who can one-up the other in the "is it real traffic" race. Similar in concept to the way spammers and email administrators battle back and forth. The removal/destruction of such databases and the permanent future non-collection of further data is more of a solution than a distraction-based workaround... whether that future non-collection comes from honest government (pffft) or real working encryption.

S.

[viking60]

It looks like the wrong strategy to me. Clicking on adds is kind of doing it on add terms. But If you need to do it to get a service this might be better than a regular click. I have not tried it.

[R_Head]

In the way I see it, is either block it all or click at all. Have not tried yet but I think the point of the plugin is to give a false possitive/flag and made their data base full of worthless data.

[Snorkasaurus]

In the way I see it, is either block it all or click at all. Have not tried yet but I think the point of the plugin is to give a false possitive/flag and made their data base full of worthless data.

That is exactly the point... fill their database with so much crap that they can't reliably search through it to determine what is or is not you. But the software isn't complex enough and it would have a hard time "being human". It would have to sign up for accounts on different web sites, it would have to use either your own pseudonyms or it would have to take on its own, it would have to occasionally use services other than http/https, and ultimately in order to "seem human" it would have to generate a lot of bandwidth. Without having millions of people using it consistently, the effects are small enough to be negligible.
S.

[R_Head]

Make a fake F-book account and use it to login on crap.

BTW, have anybody noticed that trend of using F-Book to login on websites? Who the hell they think they are Cerberus?