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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."

18 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 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
  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: 5, Funny

      Microsoft PR: So that's a maybe.

  3. 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
  4. Nostaliga by GrumpySteen · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  5. 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.

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

    It's the competition.

    .

    --
    Prisencolinensinainciusol. Ol Rait!
  7. 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.

  8. 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?

  9. 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.
  10. APK by samwichse · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  11. 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.
  12. 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.

  13. 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.