The Anti-virus Times

Thursday, February 27, 2025

Ads on the Internet can be particularly annoying for users. But for some types of advertising, we "open the door" ourselves when we download free applications. Let's figure this out: should we be afraid of ads, and how can we limit their interference in our lives?

Advertising surrounds us. Commercial breaks interrupt our favourite films, our supermarket spaces are plastered with discount offers, bright billboards block the beautiful facades of old city mansions...

Internet advertising arose simultaneously with mass access to a global network. At first, it was not very inventive: pop-up windows and large colourful banners were the maximum that advertisers would use to lure potential customers. Times have changed: today targeted advertising takes on more sophisticated forms, but it is still just as annoying.

Even harmless ads aren't harmless

The intrusiveness of online advertising is not only visual: it pollutes the viewing experience by distracting the user's attention and sending irrelevant messages.

But the main thing is that video advertising can, for example, slow down a device when sites are loading, waste the gadget's battery charge and reduce the connection bandwidth. In addition, advertising platforms can collect your digital profile and, without your permission, sell this data to brands that target you as a buyer. You may also find out that your traffic and communication costs have increased.

The "fee" for free applications — having to view ads

Not all ads are the result of malware activity. And your antivirus will not necessarily respond to them. In addition, we often "open the door" to ads ourselves.

You can use ad blocking apps. A good antivirus product will be able to block ads, torrent trackers, and malicious sites, as well as help detect suspicious apps during installation. It will warn you in time about spam, and it will not allow a hotbed of advertising to be installed on your smartphone.

Typically, adware appears on your device as a large number of pop-up ads that reappear as soon as you close them, regardless of whether you are online. This phenomenon is especially common in applications for mobile devices. If an app displays ads every two seconds, you should probably uninstall it.

We also recommend that you analyse what apps you have installed. If ads automatically appear on your Android mobile, it is likely that you have gotten it infected with adware or enabled interest-based advertising. To limit the appearance of ads, go to "Settings" → "Google" → "Ads". Then toggle on the "Delete advertising ID" switch and monitor whether ads resume.

In a similar way, you can disable pop-ups and redirects in Chrome browser on Android. Turn them off via "Settings" → "Site settings" → "Pop-ups and redirects". If you do not want to disable notifications for all sites, this operation can be performed for specific web resources by adding the addresses of sites that you do not want to receive notifications from one by one.

How to recognize malicious ads

If, to combat simple ads, you can block certain ad topics in an app when configuring privacy settings in the "Security" section (for example, on Android devices), the antivirus will be able to block malicious adware. The antivirus’s presence will protect your device because sometimes it is hard to understand whether a program is malicious or ordinary.

Malicious ads can be detected with the naked eye if you know what signs to look for. They will appear where you least expect it. For example, on Android mobile devices – outside of apps. On computers, they can appear both outside the browser and on sites embedded with trojans. In the latter case, Doctor Web's antivirus and antivirus laboratory will help solve this problem.

In addition, such ads look inaccurate or unprofessional, and their texts are full of spelling mistakes. You should be especially suspicious of an ad that makes unrealistic promises or savours celebrity scandals. Sudden ads that don't match your recent search activity can also turn out to be adware. In fact, this is not advertising, but phishing disguised as an ad.

Cybercriminals can inject malware into computers of users when they visit malicious websites or click on banners with ads. Malicious advertising can also direct users to an infected, hacked, or phishing website where their data can be stolen.