Ad-tech company was a delivery system for "mercenary spyware"

samizdis 55 points 11 comments October 17, 2026
pluralistic.net · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (5 comments)

dingaling911

Maybe it's time to face facts.

WalterGR

Dupe of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50101813 “AdFection: Targeted ads turned into a pipeline for zero-click mercenary spyware” (citizenlab.ca) 512 points | 2 days ago | 721 comments

0gs

phrases like "the world's worst governments" in a piece like this is just maddeningly muckrakey imo

Razengan

How many times can you recall from your entire life when you or someone you know ever purchased something SOLELY because of an ad? The entire ads industry is mostly a racket, at best a case of the emperor with no clothes. At worst it's a blatantly thin veil for mass surveillance. Hey bro/babe lemme peek in your window and see everything you do so I can SeRvE you MoRe rElEvAnT ads

shevy-java

Guys - ublock origin and similar pure and true anti-ad solutions (though ublock origin declares itself as a generic content blocker rather than merely an ad-blocker) need to become basic human rights. It is time to destroy and totally abolish the adMafia. Spyware etc... are just extensions that tap into the same problem. I suggest we eliminate ads completely. All companies that still force them onto the users, be it Google, Amazon and whichever, need to be either abolished, or be forced to stop cramming down ads onto people. The legislation also needs to change away from this pro-corporate worship that the orange mafia (but also prior governments) forced onto us (correspondingly in other countries as well).

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