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LG TVs are about to show ads based on your emotions — here’s how
If you thought ads were intrusive before, you haven’t seen anything yet. LG has recently signed a multi-year agreement with a company called Zenapse with an aim to leverage “emotional intelligence to deliver more meaningful and measurable brand experiences across 200 million LG Smart TVs globally.” To make ads more meaningful, Zenapse uses a CTV (Connected TV) platform called “ZenVision”…
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Google faces ‘first of its kind’ class action for search ads overcharging in UK
Google faces a “first of its kind” £5 billion lawsuit in the UK over accusations it has a monopoly in digital advertising that allows it to overcharge customers. The suit was brought via law firm Geradin Partners but led by Or Brook, an associate professor of competition law at the University of Leeds, and filed at the UK Competition Appeal…
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Google blocked over 5 billion ads in 2024 amid rise in AI-powered scams
Google blocked 5.1 billion ads and suspended more than 39.2 million advertiser accounts in 2024, according to its 2024 Ads Safety Report released this week. The company says the increasing enforcement activity is caused by the growing threat of AI-generated content, impersonation scams, and abuse of its ad platform. In particular, Google highlighted the use of generative AI tools to create deepfake…
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Spotify might put AI ads in its free tier because it wants to annoy you into upgrading
I can’t lie — I’ve completely lost interest in Spotify and the long, long wait for Spotify HiFi. I’m not sure it’s actually going to happen at this point, given we’ve been waiting for what feels like hundreds of years. But there’s still part of me that hopes it’s Spotify HiFi on the way when Spotify makes headlines again, only…
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Fake Semrush ads used to steal SEO professionals’ Google accounts
A new phishing campaign is targeting SEO professionals with malicious Semrush Google Ads that aim to steal their Google account credentials. Malwarebytes researcher Jerome Segura and SEO strategist Elie Berreby believe that the threat actor is after Google Ads accounts that would enable them to create new malvertising campaigns. This type of “cascading fraud” has been gaining traction recently, as Malwarebytes uncovered in January a…
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Roku Is Experimenting With a New Way to Force You to Watch Ads
Ads are an unavoidable part of modern life. They support both free and discounted services, for better or for worse, and unless you pay for premium services like YouTube Premium or expensive Netflix tiers, it’s likely you’ll run into these commercials one way or another. But just because ads are deeply entwined in our digital devices, that doesn’t mean they…
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Apple Maps may soon get ads, letting businesses pay to boost visibility
Apple is reportedly considering introducing advertisements into its Maps app in a move to boost its growing Services revenue, according to an Apple insider. As per Bloomberg’s Power On newsletter, Apple is mulling ways in which it might monetize the navigation app, after an all-hands meeting was called to “explore” the matter. This is not the first time that ads…
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Why YouTube Is Showing You Hours of Unskippable Ads
Google has been taking its crusade against adblockers to a whole new level lately, so if you’ve started getting unskippable multi-hour ads on YouTube, that might be why. Over the past week, Redditors have been sharing screenshots showing that they’ve been served ads with runtimes as long as three hours, with no skip button in sight—and that’s to watch videos…
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Fake Homebrew Google ads target Mac users with malware
Hackers are once again abusing Google ads to spread malware, using a fake Homebrew website to infect Macs and Linux devices with an infostealer that steals credentials, browser data, and cryptocurrency wallets. The malicious Google ads campaign was spotted by Ryan Chenkie, who warned on X about the risk of malware infection. The malware used in this campaign is AmosStealer (aka…
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I Wish Facebook Was as Good at Suggesting Content as It Is at Suggesting Ads
Got an ad on Facebook for a gadget you were talking about with a friend? That’s Facebook for you. But when it comes to suggesting organic content, it’s often a hit or miss. With some experimenting, though, you could quickly fill the gaps between the two algorithms. Facebook Ads Are Surprisingly Accurate Let’s admit it. Facebook’s ads are frighteningly on…
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