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Microsoft Research Paper Considers Serving Web-ads From Localhost

Posted by timothy on from the call-is-coming-from-inside-the-house dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A paper from Microsoft researchers (PDF) posits the possibility of 'pushing' web ads to a user's own computer and serving them into pre-arranged containers on web pages, with the EFF or ACLU serving as privacy mediators between the user and the advertisers who want to engage them. However the framework — dubbed 'Privad' — would need to get installed on the user's system by the same familiar means which the likes of Superfish use. The report admits that Privad would probably need to be disseminated "through adware-style software bundling, shopping discounts, toolbars or other incentives."

43 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Violation of that which is sacrosanct by Kincaidia · · Score: 5, Funny

    Localhost is my home. You DO NOT touch my home.

    1. Re:Violation of that which is sacrosanct by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      But look, you've got all these bare walls going to waste. Surely you wouldn't object to us coming in and putting up posters for various products that you might be interested in buying. Some of the posters might be more "kiosk" than "poster", so we might need some outlets to plug them in. And someplace to mount the speakers around your house. And good news: you won't need nightlights; some of the posters/kiosks can serve that duty. And once you've accepted that, maybe we'll start sending product reps around to, for example, wait in your bathroom and tell you about shampoos, deodorants and feminine hygiene products when you use the toilet or shower.

    2. Re:Violation of that which is sacrosanct by Jawnn · · Score: 3, Informative

      Localhost is my home. You DO NOT touch my home.

      Piss off, you mere citizen. If you're not a corporate citizen, you're little people, and little people don't have the same rights as corporate citizens. We will tell you what you can do with your property, and you'll like it, because the bread and circuses will continue to flow.

    3. Re:Violation of that which is sacrosanct by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 3, Funny

      Of course all farm animals are equal, its just that some are more equal than others

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    4. Re:Violation of that which is sacrosanct by plover · · Score: 4, Informative

      Too late. It's been touched.

      For those of you not reading Slashdot on Windows 8, you may not realize that local advertising support was built directly into Windows 8, and ads appear in certain Metro-style apps, exactly like iAds on iOS.

      Of course since the research paper was written in 2009, this still shouldn't come as much of a surprise, as you've all had six years of warning.

      --
      John
    5. Re:Violation of that which is sacrosanct by Krojack · · Score: 2

      Or own an iDevice

  2. Allow me to comment on the subject... by gr33ngiant112 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No. No. No. No. No. Definitely No. Nope. Don't Even. No. Lets not, and say we did.
    In the event of nope, just no. Absolutely not. So, as you can see, NO.
    Sincerely,
    No@nope.com

    1. Re:Allow me to comment on the subject... by gstoddart · · Score: 5, Funny

      am the only person in my entourage

      I'm pretty sure you neither have an "entourage", nor know what the word means.

      "Everybody you know" is NOT an entourage.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Allow me to comment on the subject... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No. No. No. No. No. Definitely No. Nope. Don't Even. No. Lets not, and say we did.

      In the event of nope, just no. Absolutely not. So, as you can see, NO.

      Sincerely,

      No@nope.com

      Free. Free. Free. Free. Absolutely Free. If you're gonna charge me, don't. Don't even. Don't even fucking think I'll open my wallet for 99 cents.

      I'm a cheap ass, just like everyone else demands services for Free. As you can see, Free is the price tag that is acceptable.

      Sincerely,

      NoPrivacy@HowWeFuckingGotHere.com

    3. Re:Allow me to comment on the subject... by Nrrqshrr · · Score: 2

      Color me rainbows, I just learned what the word Entourage really means.
      Now that was embarassing, but thanks for the info.

    4. Re:Allow me to comment on the subject... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft PR: So that's a maybe.

    5. Re:Allow me to comment on the subject... by penguinoid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And yet, free and open source software tends to have less ads, and is sometimes better than the commercial software as well.

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  3. Dis gon' be gud by gTsiros · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This idea will be received with open arms, here on /., I'm sure.

    I'm somewhat worried (absolutely petrified, I should say) about the effort spent on advertisements. I guess considering human nature it is a necessary evil, but still...

    --
    Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
    1. Re:Dis gon' be gud by OhPlz · · Score: 2

      If they put even half as much money into the actual products instead of advertising, they wouldn't have to rely so much on advertising to trick people into buying them.

    2. Re:Dis gon' be gud by gTsiros · · Score: 3, Insightful

      see, that's the problem. consumers don't care for a better product, or rather, they do not select a product based on objective criteria, their sense of value is distorted by marketing tricks. That's why i mentioned human nature. Companies know this and they use it to their best interest.

      --
      Looking for people to chat about multicopters, coding, music. skype: gtsiros
  4. Good Luck... by edit28 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We'll see how long it takes us before we remove/block this "feature"

    1. Re:Good Luck... by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Informative

      That might prove to be difficult.

      Last week on my Windows 8.1 machine I had to spend time tracking down an update Microsoft pushed out which did nothing more than start nagging you to upgrade to Windows 10 and wants to do it for you.

      Fuck that, it's a new computer, and I will upgrade it when I choose, not when some asshole at Microsoft decides I should.

      I sure as hell don't trust them to do it competently and let me be a fucking beta tester for it. Not even a little bit.

      (If anybody runs into it, KB3035583 needs to be removed)

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re: Good Luck... by ArcadeMan · · Score: 2

      Why? Is Microsoft going to buy Apple? Is Apple going to "buy Linux"?

      --
      Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
    3. Re:Good Luck... by WaffleMonster · · Score: 2

      I don't get the hate on that one. They're offering it as a free upgrade for one year going as far back as Win 7. If they didn't have the notification on those systems, the year would go by and then everyone would whine about not knowing about the free upgrade.

      It isn't a notification it is a nag screen. Nags are intentionally engineered to be unnecessarily difficult to remove. Notifications are designed to be easily dismissed once the user has had a chance to see it.

    4. Re:Good Luck... by TWX · · Score: 2

      I buy second-hand servers for my workstations. More powerful than most workstations even used, and don't have any of that crap because they have to be able to run whatever virtualization OS natively.

      --
      Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
    5. Re:Good Luck... by OhPlz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're a beta tester on every product now, that's not specific to MS. It's the never ending rush to market followed by the inevitable need to "rebuild our image". They're not forcing you to upgrade either. If they wanted to do that, they'd shove Win 10 down the update mechanism, not a notification applet.

      As for the update not stating what it does, that's a valid criticism of most of MS's updates. There used to be a time when each update had a good description of what it did. They haven't done that in a long time now. There are a lot of updates with very sparse information. Again, I think that's part of the rush to market. If anything breaks or too many people complain, we'll do something then.

      Something that should be concerning is the Home edition of Win 10. It looks like they'll be forcing updates on them. You need the premium or whatever the branding is to be able to control the updates. That's some bad news, but probably understandable considering those users aren't the techie types that will make an effort to keep their stuff up to date and secure.

  5. Slashdot Editing By Timothy by Frobnicator · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wow. Thanks /.'s Timothy for your editing work.

    After all the years we're used to your frequent grammar issues.

    But incorrect markup with raw URLs like that, that's an impressive low.

    --
    //TODO: Think of witty sig statement
  6. "From Microsoft Researchers" by thedonger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    More like, "From the Microsoft Marketing Department." Unless I'm missing something, this is just bundling "safe" adware as part of Windows. Hmm, maybe Ubuntu will have new life breathed into it.

    --
    Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
    1. Re:"From Microsoft Researchers" by RabidReindeer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More like, "From the Microsoft Marketing Department." Unless I'm missing something, this is just bundling "safe" adware as part of Windows. Hmm, maybe Ubuntu will have new life breathed into it.

      Nah, it'll be an integral part of the next systemd release along with emacs, ntp, and the web browser.

    2. Re:"From Microsoft Researchers" by macs4all · · Score: 3, Interesting

      More like, "From the Microsoft Marketing Department." Unless I'm missing something, this is just bundling "safe" adware as part of Windows. Hmm, maybe Ubuntu will have new life breathed into it.

      No, this is just Microsoft's idea of a way to monetize the "free" Windows 10 Upgrade.

      See, the problem is, when Microsoft gives away Windows 10 in a wan attempt to keep up with Apple doing the same for the past 2 (or is it 3?) Versions of OS X, they are directly hacking away at a primary revenue source. Apple, OTOH, has the cost of OS X factored-in to their overall sales of related hardware, and so it really isn't "felt" on the overall Balance Sheet.

      So now, Microsoft is in the unenviable position of trying to figure out where to "make up" that revenue, especially since their sales are down in almost every sector overall, and so they are forced to resort to sleazy tactics like essentially turning Windows 10 into adware.

      My prediction: Either they will be shamed into abandoning this despicable idea; or they will create a PAID "ransomware" tier for those who will pay $99 (or, knowing MS's burning desire for SaaS, more like $49/year) to "disable" the ads. Mark my words; you heard it here, first...

  7. Origin of 'Privad' by avandesande · · Score: 3, Informative

    Privy(outhouse) + ad (derived from)

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  8. KGTO all GOAT all the time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The GOATSE is coming from INSIDE YOUR HOUSE!!
    {#`%${%&`+'${`%&NO CARRIER

  9. Nostaliga by GrumpySteen · · Score: 5, Funny

    There's the evil empire I grew up with! I was wondering where they'd gotten off to.

  10. So the Ask toolbar isn't just malware by RevWaldo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's the competition.

    .

    --
    Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
  11. In other news by justthinkit · · Score: 5, Funny

    A man, identified only as "A.P.K." -- no last name -- was seen walking toward the Golden Gate bridge while repeatedly muttering "The whole plan is ruined...one minute, global domination, the next minute, total failure..."

    --
    I come here for the love
    1. Re:In other news by Darinbob · · Score: 4, Funny

      But he'll have the world's longest suicide note.

  12. Old paper is old by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why are we discussing this paper from 2009 (http://conferences.sigcomm.org/hotnets/2009/program.html) as if it is new?

  13. Re:3 ... 2 .. 1 . by macs4all · · Score: 2

    Class action.

    I hope it's in the billions.

    Why? The only ones who ever see the awards are the defense attorneys.

  14. Re:Fuck you Microsoft ... by macs4all · · Score: 2

    Placing the ads on our machines directly is a bullshit move. How about we protect our fucking privacy by not having this shit on our machines in the first place.

    I agree! Here's how to start.

  15. How about no by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 2

    Ads stuffed into my machine, but also prevetted by the ACLU and EFF? How high do you think we are?

    Not only do you want to suck up my bandwidth, you want to suck up my drive space. And only those ads deemed 'acceptable'?
    Didn't we go through that whole push thing about 1998 or so. Hell, you even got free dialup if you accepted their pushed ads. Of course, it rendered the machine unusable, because it was trying to keep up with the ads stream...

  16. APK by samwichse · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh man, APK's head is going to asplode!

  17. Re:Fuck off! by dimeglio · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why? Don't you miss those screens full off highly functional toolbars? With 4K+ resolution monitors, we should be able to pack a few hundred more in IE (or whatever it's called today).

    --
    Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
  18. corporate torrent by goombah99 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have been wanting to see Apple or Microsoft or Netflix embrace torrent like local servers. But not for ads. For movies. Just push out all the movies to people's computers at night. Then let itunes or whoever form the torrent networks to deliver movies to paying customers. As long as I get a discount (since it's my bandwidth and electricity) why not? I'd like it as thumb in the nose of comcast and anyone else throttling the net.

    I'm not talking about illegal file sharing, I'm talking about just having content served right within Comcasts own network so there's no peering issues.

    Yes I appreciate how long comcast would let that go on. Just a fantasy.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  19. Re:Fuck you Microsoft ... by macs4all · · Score: 2

    Why Mint in particular, compared to the other distros?

    Quite frankly, I wanted to deflect the drubbing I would get if I just linked to Apple's site; and so, since I hear a lot of people on Slashdot speak highly of Mint, especially for users that are coming to Linux for the first time, I figured it would be a kind of "neutral" distro to pick.

    But, since Linux fanbois can't seem to pick which of the 100+ distros they want to get behind (one of the biggest reasons why Linux on the Desktop is a complete non-starter, IMHO), I guess I would have to point to someplace like here, instead.

    So, to me, your question simply registers in my brain as "No good deed goes unpunished".

  20. Targeting helps make an ad good by tepples · · Score: 3, Insightful

    A good advertisement is one served to the correct audience. For example, if you are a single man, an ad for feminine hygiene products is unlikely to be good. Therefore some measure of targeting is required.

  21. Re:Full screen ads on Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because you're not using adblock.

  22. Re:3 ... 2 .. 1 . by macs4all · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Class action.

    I hope it's in the billions.

    Why? The only ones who ever see the awards are the defense attorneys.

    So what? The societal point of a class action suit is to punish the offenders. Are you going to take a day off work to file a small claims suit for $1.23 when you are overcharged on your phone bill? Will you even bother to spend an hour on hold, or change providers if there is a BS $0.95 "surcharge" added to you bill? I know I won't. I won't use the coupons I get sent either when they lose the suit. At least the lawyers get cash - that what discourage corporate behavior from being even MORE egregious.

    You mean like with the Tobacco Company Settlements, where not only did the Defendants get exactly NOTHING, but then THEY ended up paying the Fines in the form of cigarette prices that more than DOUBLED, coincidentally RIGHT after those Settlements were agreed-upon.

    I don't even smoke cigarettes; but I thought that was one of the most blatant "transfers of burden" that I have ever seen; the Tobacco Industry didn't suffer a DIME, directly. The ONLY ones who suffered were the poor victims that the Tobacco Companies Addicted in the first place!

    So now, tell me how Class Actions teach Corporations a lesson?

  23. Ha, I'll show them! by Zalbik · · Score: 2

    Won't work for me! I redirect localhost to 127.0.0.1!

    BTW...why are we discussing a paper from 2009? Is this really news?