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Annoyed Users:
Ads and Ad-Block Usage in the Wild
IMC’15 Tokyo, Japan
Oliver Hohlfeld
RWTH Aachen
Anja Feldmann
TU Berlin
Enric Pujol
TU Berlin
2
3
http://www.journalism.org/2015/04/29/digital-news-revenue-fact-sheet
Page Fair and Adobe report on Ad Blocking
4
Mozilla Add-on statistics
Publishers reaction
5
The Guardian
6(Why can I not see BILD.de?)
Acceptable ads program(non-intrusive ads)
7
White-listing within AdBlockPlus (ABP)
Our work
8
Online advertisingResidential Broadband Network
Methodology based on AdBlockPlus
Characterize ad trafficAd-blocker usage
9
10
11
URL
||ads.example.com^ $ script, image, domain=bar.com
www.bar.com
#document HTML HEAD BODY … IMG
DOM Tree
Content-Type Base URL
Is this information available in HTTP header traces?
http://ads.example.com/ad.gif
www.foo.com
Content Policy
12
||ads.example.com ^ $ script, image, domain=foo.com
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||ads.example.com ^ $ script, image, domain=foo.com
HTTP logsBro IDS
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||ads.example.com ^ $ script, image, domain=foo.com
HTTP logsBro IDS
Map Web PagesReferrerMap
15
||ads.example.com ^ $ script, image, domain=foo.com
Classify requestslibadblockplus + filter lists
HTTP logsBro IDS
Map Web PagesReferrerMap
Limitations
16
HTTPS trafficContent-Type
HTTP logs
Referrer Map Web page
Classification Hidden ads (CSS)List sanity
Ad-blocker usage indicators
17
Low ratio of ad requests Easylist updates
AdBlock Plus
Caveat: ad-free content
Any ad-blocker
Caveat: HTTPS + NATs
How to find a suitable threshold?
Active measurements
Values for the complete set of Alexa top 1K
Browser Mode #HTTP ad-requests ratio
Vanilla 57.8K 16 %
Adblock Plus + all lists 48.5K <0.1 %
1828.10.2015
When can we apply ad-ratio indicator?
At least 1K requests. Set threshold to 5%1928.10.2015
Vanilla: no pluginAdBP-Pa: adblockPlus + all lists
Data sets
Trace RBN-1 RBN-2
Duration 4 days 15 and ½ hours
Subscribers 7.5 K 19.7 K
HTTPbytes 18.8 TB 11.4 TB
HTTPrequests 131.95 M 85.09 M
Characterize ad traffic
Assess ad-blocker prevalence
2028.10.2015
How much ad-related traffic?
2128.10.2015
Ad-related traffic
EasyList and derivatives (55 %) EasyPrivacy (35 %) Acceptable ads (10 %)
0 % 18 % 100 %
Black-listed (57%)
“Loose filters” @@||gstatic.com^$document
How many ABP-capable browsers?
Requests: 50 % (all)72 % (ads)
2228.10.2015
500K pairs<IP, UserAgent>
1.6K unique UserAgent strings 9.2 K users
Heavy hitters
MobileFirefox Chrome Safari IE
33 % 24 % 15 % 21 % 7 %
Known browsers
23
Ad Ratio EasyList
✘ ✘
✘ ✔
✔ ✘
✔ ✔
28.10.2015
Browsers with no evidence of an adblocker: 46% of the ad traffic
Inconsistent indicatorsa) various users in the same household
2428.10.2015
Ad Ratio EasyList
✘ ✘
✘ ✔
✔ ✘
✔ ✔
Inconsistent indicatorsa) different plugin, or b) ad-free content
2528.10.2015
Ad Ratio EasyList
✘ ✘
✘ ✔
✔ ✘
✔ ✔
Evidence of Adblock Plus for 22% of the users Still generate ad traffic!
2628.10.2015
Ad Ratio EasyList
✘ ✘
✘ ✔
✔ ✘
✔ ✔
?
27
Most AdBlockPlus users do not change default settings
82% 11 % 7%
EasyPrivacyAcceptable ads
EasyList
No ad blocker
EasyPrivacy
Acceptable ads
99%
87%
ABP users
90%
70%
How do users configure ABP?AGGREGATED
Summary
Can we use existing functionality to classify ad traffic?
Yes, we can! (but limitations apply)
2828.10.2015
Summary
Can we use existing functionality to classify ad traffic?
Yes, we can! (but limitations apply)
Which traffic is potentially affected by Adblock Plus?
~18% requests and ~1% HTTP bytes
Google, CDNs, Cloud Providers and dedicated ASes
10% of the ad-related traffic is white listed
2928.10.2015
Summary
Can we use existing functionality to classify ad traffic?
Yes, we can! (but limitations apply)
Which traffic is potentially affected by Adblock Plus?
~18% requests and ~1% HTTP bytes
Google, CDNs, Cloud Providers and dedicated ASes
10% of the ad-related traffic conforms Acceptable Ads
Can we measure how end users adopt ad-block plugins?
Yes, in our traces ~20% of users
Out-of-the-box i.e., acceptable ads / no EasyPrivacy3028.10.2015
Thank you!
Can we use existing functionality to classify ad traffic?
Yes, we can! (but limitations apply)
Which traffic is potentially affected by Adblock Plus?
~18% requests and ~1% HTTP bytes
Google, CDNs, Cloud Providers and dedicated ASes
10% of the ad-related traffic conforms Acceptable Ads
Can we measure how end users adopt ad-block plugins?
Yes, in our traces ~20% of users
Out-of-the-box i.e., acceptable ads / no EasyPrivacy3128.10.2015
3228.10.2015