According to a new study about ad fraud, as much as 15% of mobile apps allegedly load stealth ads. The ads can consume as much as 2 gb of connection data daily by downloading images and videos that are never viewed. This translates into advertisers losing as much as 1 billions dollars in 2015 only.
The 10 day study revealed how this hijacking method will load hidden ads in the blink of an eye, going as far as to emulate human behavior. Every smartphone owner could be the victim of ad fraud with them ever suspecting anything is wrong.
With the mobile market rapidly developing and growing into a profitable scene for advertisement, ad fraud didn’t delay to make its appearance. Additionally, the ever more ingenious fraud strategies are not only harmful for the advertising moguls, but they can also affect the consumer segment.
Exactly what numbers are we looking at? The study claims that 1% of US devices run fake ads, while in Europe and Asia as much as 2-3% of devices are similarly hijacked. How does this impact regular consumers? If you were wondering where your data and battery life were going, this study might answer your questions. The malicious apps can end up downloading 1-2 gb daily, including text, videos and pictures.
While the invisible ads pop up on all major mobile operating systems, it would appear Android is taking the biggest hit with a fraud risk proportion of 14.8%, followed by Apple with 11.7% and Windows, with 8.8%.
A typical legitimate app will refresh every 30-120 seconds, unlike the illegitimate ones which will deliver as many as 20 ads per minute. The situation looks disconcerting, especially when we have a look at some other things the apps can do: they can prevent your device from going into sleep mode, they can delete or modify your smartphone’s memory and they can even track your location.
So what can the average consumer do to take shelter from the malicious apps? One suggestion would be to scan app reviews and keep an eye out for excessive data usage. Another red flag could be the power usage, since these two could hint at fraud. One more piece of advice is to pull the plug on some apps’ cell data access to make sure you stay on the safe side of the fence.
While the study points the finger mostly at small, unknown app publishers, the bigger picture at hand is online and privacy safety. The study raises many questions and leaves the public demanding answers and solutions.
