Online advertisement blocker detection: a look at the state of the art for counter-detection and a proof-of-concept for new approaches

Abstract

In the last years, there has been a surge in the usage of ad-blocking software among Internet users, mainly motivated by intrusive advertisements and rising awareness of the privacy and security implications of advertisements. As a response, many websites have started implementing ad-blocker detection scripts, which detect whether or not an user has an ad-blocking software. In this work, we study the implications and technical underpinnings of those scripts and document relatively simple workarounds ad-blocking software could implement to avoid detection by those scripts. We also present a prototype implementing the explained techniques over a set of test cases.