Apple Pauses App Store Gambling Ads After Developer Outcry 27
Apple has "paused ads related to gambling and a few other categories on App Store product pages" after developers and commentators criticized the types of advertisements showing up in the iPhone's App Store, according to a statement from spokesperson Trevor Kincaid. From a report: On Tuesday, Apple announced that companies could advertise their apps on the store pages for other apps, putting their icon in the "you might also like" section. Almost immediately, developers started showing examples of ads for gambling apps being recommended under their apps. Twitter is also full of screenshots of very inappropriate ad placements: one Twitter user shows a slot machine app being advertised alongside gambling addiction recovery apps, and there are examples of other betting apps being advertised on pages for apps aimed towards children, adult video chat apps showing up on the Apple Books page, and dating apps being placed under apps designed to improve existing relationships.
Good Idea. (Score:3)
They really need to come up with a better way to show ads fitting whatever is being shown alongside it.
Showing hentai game ads alongside children's games is probably a bad idea, you know.
Or gambling ads, anywhere, at all.
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Targeted ads have a problem that general ads do not. The ad vendor becomes responsible for content. If I see these ads on traditional TV, we protest, but really if they reach their demographic these is no real recourse.
Re:Good Idea. (Score:5, Interesting)
On /., there has been ads that seem to be for video games that promote rape. And buying females. And promoting celebrities that rape and buy females.
Uh... I think the ads on slashdot are already targeted.
You may want to cycle your identifying information (cookies, IP, email address, social media accounts, etc), and reconsider the sort of content you proactively seek out in the future.
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So why do I keep getting ads for pregnancy testing kits and farming equipment?
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Talk to your wife, mate.
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On /., there has been ads that seem to be for video games that promote rape. And buying females. And promoting celebrities that rape and buy females.
Uh... I think the ads on slashdot are already targeted.
You may want to cycle your identifying information (cookies, IP, email address, social media accounts, etc), and reconsider the sort of content you proactively seek out in the future.
I want to find out what celebrity this is, and I don't want ad networks to show that crap here on /. Targeted ads are a disaster, don't blame the user.
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What ads? Install uBlock + Ghostery + a couple of rules to block Jobbo (or whatever it's called that /. recently added) and there's zero tracking and zero ads. Content the way it should be.
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Don't want to see ads on Slashdot? Make a positive contribution!
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On /., there has been ads that seem to be for video games that promote rape. And buying females. And promoting celebrities that rape and buy females.
Uh... I think the ads on slashdot are already targeted.
You may want to cycle your identifying information (cookies, IP, email address, social media accounts, etc), and reconsider the sort of content you proactively seek out in the future.
Well if the Jobio bollocks I haven't bothered to figure out how to block yet is any indication, I'm good.
Job in Austin, Seattle, San Fran, Cambridge... and I'm pretty sure that's not Cambridge, MA not Cambridge, UK either. My exit point according to Google is Slough, Berks (UK) which is within 30 miles of where I live.
Even Google, which would know the most about me given I'm on Android does an absolutely terrible job of targeting me with ads.
P.S. anyone know what I put into Adblock to banish said J
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I've never seen ads on /.
NoScript, ABP, no ads. Ever.
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Developers were really mad about this (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm an iOS developer and as such follow a lot of other iOS devs on various social media platforms.
Almost all other developers HATED this, many of them had moral issues with gambling and were really upset their app was being associated with gambling because gambling ads were placed alongside their app in the App Store. Others just thought it was low-class.
Often people complaining are a tiny minority but this time I don't think it was a minority complaining but majority, which is why Apple backtracked on this pretty much instantly (instantly for Apple).
This really brings up a larger question of allowing ads on an App Store. I can understand allowing apps to promote themselves to say, if they would have come up in search anyway, and they just get moved up in presentation.
But to outright present out of context applications in any kind of search or browsing is I think polluting the App Store, making it less usable and frankly more terrible.
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There were also a number of developers who 'used' this system, since it'll more likely show apps from the same dev.
So they would get it to show their gambling/casino/income ads alongside their other more reasonable apps.
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It's nice that they got rid of the gambling ads... are they going to get rid of the "You are the king, go build yourself a harem of sex slaves ads" game ads next?
Those actually drive traffic to the App Store, so I wonder if they'll be quite as eager to get rid of those.
Re: (Score:1)
are they going to get rid of the "You are the king, go build yourself a harem of sex slaves ads"
I have not seen those myself in the App Store yet but would totally agree if they are there, I find those just as annoying as gambling ads.
I see them on YouTube all the time.
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Could just use subset of promoted. (Score:1)
You search for a thing but end up with hundreds of results for a chinese knock off of the actual thing.
I agree that's a potential problem with the "promoted" item going higher in search results, maybe to combat that your app would go into a pool with all promoted apps that were including in search results, and randomly only two or three would be bumped up in actual user visible results (the others would still appear in whatever natural order they would have been in).
Re: Developers were really mad about this (Score:2)
I have trouble believing most iOS developers have moral issues with gambling seeing how the majority of mobile games are glorified slot machines that don't pay out.
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I have trouble believing most iOS developers have moral issues with gambling seeing how the majority of mobile games
iOS developers generally don't have much to do with mobile game developers, who are really not iOS developers (they al just use game engines).
I agree mobile game developers probably do not care at all about these ads.
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As a consumer, I'd definitely be irate. I don't gamble. I think it's pretty stupid and the places where people goto gamble, like Las Vegas and Atlantic City, are pretty crass and trashy. Probably the only times I *have* gambled is on the nickel slots at Vegas's airport to kill time while waiting for connections. And I'd rather have had an actual arcade with video games. So, any "you might be interested in" ads for gambling apps that hit my eyeballs are a massive and wasteful targeted-advertising fail.
Targeting seems off (Score:1)
so long as they leave me out of it. And if the gambling ads ARE well-targeted, and being shown to people who might actually be interested in them, what's the BFD?
Problem is the gambling ads do not seem at all well targeted, I was seeing them also and have never had any interest.
On a side note, "crass" was exactly the word I was thinking of but could not get it my head when typing "low-class".
I agree with your wider sentiment sort of, but do think an app should have some say in the context it's presented in.
Wow, who could’ve predicted that? (Score:1)
Question (Score:2)
one Twitter user shows a slot machine app being advertised alongside gambling addiction recovery apps, and there are examples of other betting apps being advertised on pages for apps aimed towards children, adult video chat apps showing up on the Apple Books page, and dating apps being placed under apps designed to improve existing relationships.
How are ads "rated/ranked/categorized"? By that I mean, for gambling, is there something behind the scenses which says this is a gambling ad? If it's an adult re
Re: (Score:2)
or some dev's don't really give an dam. Hell adult ad pay more then others so why not put into my app that is for kids but not really an kids only app.
This reminds me of a few oddball ads (Score:2)
One time I saw two ads on a bridal website: One ad was for a law firm that specialized in divorces and the other was for a funeral home selling their services.
I also saw an ad once for a gun show that had "rescue cats and kittens available for adoption" in the ad. Not dogs/puppies, just cats/kittens. What kind of person is going to go to a gun show specifically to adopt a cat or kitten?
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