“Website advertisement companies have found a way to circumvent the protections introduced in iOS 8 to stop users from being kicked to the App Store because of certain cleverly-coded JavaScript advertisements,” Benjamin Mayo reports for 9to5Mac.
“I am now experiencing this myself, and it makes browsing on the iPhone unusable. Browsing to websites such as Reddit and Reuters and others now automatically open the App Store… It’s unclear why this has started happening to me (it wasn’t happening yesterday and not everyone experiences it), but Twitter searches show that is also affecting others. It’s basically impossible for me to browse the web on my phone due to this. Using alternate browsers has no effect. Disabling JavaScript stops this from happening, but that isn’t really feasible as many websites rely on JavaScript to function, so it doesn’t really count as a reasonable solution,” Mayo reports. “This flared up as a serious issue last year, when users found they were being taken to random App Store pages without granting any kind of permission.”
“In iOS 8 beta 2, Apple supposedly had remedied the issue: ‘Safari now blocks ads from automatically redirecting to the App Store without user interaction.’ However, it seems that ad companies have now managed to work around these safeguard,” Mayo reports. “This is Apple’s problem to fix, not an attack on the websites… All of these websites use third-party networks that are outside of their control — it’s not their decision to cause the redirections. We’ve reached out to Apple for comment on the issue.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Okay, so we’ve obviously been through this before, so we’ll refer you to this post for more info if you haven’t seen it, yet:
Shady app install ads automatically redirecting mobile users to App Store, Google Play – January 16, 2015
For some time now, we’ve been doing what we can, at a cost to the site, by turning off entire ad networks and having affected users report back if the rogue redirects have stopped or not (it’s not happening to everybody; in fact, we can’t replicate the problem on any of our iOS devices. We’re going to try Reddit and Reuters to see if we can trigger them there via Safari for iOS). We also can see what’s happening in our Inbox. When the flow of complaints that accuse us of being “stupid fscking greedy bastards” cease (those are the “nice” ones), then we know we’ve hit upon an issue.
Currently, as of Monday evening, we think we’ve got these ad networks isolated (off) and the redirects have stopped (or slowed) according to our helpful readers (like Dominick P., for one prominent example – thanks, Dominick for all your help on this!) and because the email missives have ceased.
Again, as Mayo reports, we’re not causing these redirects. Reddit is not causing the redirects. Neither is Reuters. Beyond Apple’s responsibility for their users’ experience, the third-party ad networks really need to get a handle on this and vet who they allow into their systems. Right now, some of these networks are infiltrated by criminals who are spreading malvertising. If they fail to clean up their acts, these ad networks will lose publishers, and eventually their businesses.
If you experience an auto redirect while browsing MacDailyNews.com via Safari on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, please drop us a friendly email, so we know that they’re back and we can try to block them.
You can stop this from happening in your browser of choice on your iOS device by enabling Guided Access in Settings>General>Accessibility. This will prevent the App Store from being launched out of Safari unless you want it to do so.
In closing, this continues to be an absolutely lovely experience all around and we hope it ends sooner than later. Please, Apple, save us if you can!
Related article:
Shady app install ads automatically redirecting mobile users to App Store, Google Play – January 16, 2015
Thank you for addressing this, MDN. I love visiting the site, but those redirects have been out of control as of late.
I apologize for my email, MDN. While I did not go nearly so far as to call you “stupid fsking greedy bastards,” I was pretty irritated about the repeated redirects.
I have one suggestion to reduce this problem, expel any app that uses this kind of underhanded redirect tactic. It would seem to be a self-defeating approach, anyway. I will *never* download an app that is shoved into my face like that.
Could the competition be rerouting to get people po’ed at a app?
Hmm, I have never had this problem on my iDevices.
Every once in awhile, MDN’s page load times going nuts beyond 30 seconds and shows data going or loading from all sorts of strange addresses at the bottom left of Safari’s window. Occurs on Safari and Firefox. Slashdot loads in 2-3 seconds.
Thus my guess is some ad on MDN takes over control of page loading on an occassional basis.
Loading the main page is OK, but clicking an article to read is painful.
Should have noted that is on my MBPro.
One of the URLs seen at the bottom left from the whole list, which I specifically remember, was legit.com, which is advertising for a TV app.
I don’t know what it is doing to Safari, but I’m posting this from an earlier clone of my MBPro which allowed me to get into MDN. Not sure what has gone on, but I suspect bad ads.
Since different ads load on each page load, my guess is that it is one specific bad ad actor which is trying to gain control somehow.
If I was Apple, I’d set up a complaint site, verify the complaints and then I’d remove ALL YOUR APPS from the App Store. To get back in the App Store, you’d have some explaining to do.
This has happened to me many times on MDN, and a few times on other sites. If Apple has tried to address this through software and is still getting worked around, then it is time for the moron ad placers to feel the heat of an angry marketplace. Never buy an app that you are redirected to. Communicate the bad behavior to your social media contacts so they know not to buy these aps advertised by these redirects. Make it a big enough economic deal to kill the ad company that uses this behavior. One bad reference is worse than 10 good references so these ad companies should get burned. If anyone knows the name of the ad company doing this, pass it on so we can all apply the heat.
MDN is the only site I have ever visited that does this, when using an iphone
Clearly some others experiencing it on some other websites, so I don’t understand what you are saying.
He is saying “…MDN is the only site I have ever visited that does this, when using an iphone..,”. How can you not understand what he said? I also experience on iPhone 5, on only MDN, tho not in last three days.
Yup. Me too. MDN is the only site where I have this problem. Pretty much keeps me elsewhere.
I’m the same way. This is the only site that ever redirects me and it happens all the time. Thanks for working on getting this fixed.
Aintitcoolnews did it to me a few times but they seemed to be on top of it quickly
Seems logical to me an Apple oriented site would be targeted for this more than other sites.
Sorry folks it’s not only MDN
Me too. Pristine iPhone 6, no apps downloaded from the AppStore and MDN is the only site where this happens. Took 5 tries to get to this page without a redirect to either iTunes, the AppStore or a “Win an iPhone 6” page, happened on both the home page and tabs opened from there.
Somebody has come up with some sleazy but clever trick that nobody else has yet figured out. (At least nobody that’s talking). But now that it’s gotten so much attention it won’t be long before somebody sorts it out.
I would say that the websites do have some responsibility in this matter. MDN has taken action and so should others if they have regard for their customers. What I don’t understand is why does this only afflicts mobile Safari. Also I did find using another browser did stop the problem though those browsers could develop the same problem at other times. But surely this is a legal issue too and if ad companies and others are using this then and continue to doso having been warned not to then it has to be made ilegal and the law used to enforce their compliance. Or do we wait for Googles self driving cars are being redirected to any city other than the one programmed in before anyone takes it seriously.
” MDN has taken action and so should others if they have regard for their customers.”
It’s still happening on the MDN site. They haven’t cured it yet (booted the rogue advertisers).
Also, I’ve implemented MDN’s suggested work around. It does not always stop the redirects. Out of a couple dozen tries after I implemented MDN’s suggestion I still got one redirect. Yes, it’s better than before as before implementing the suggestion I was getting redirects 100% of the time, but it’s still not a 100% cure.
The cure is a Macintosh with Click to Plugin- one of the great Safari extensions.
There are apps for iOS that tame the beast
Please name a few.
Weblock
Currently using iPhone 6+ using Safari and MDN app with no problem. Have tried same with iPhone 4, and 5s with no problem. 2012 MacBookPro 13″ with Retina also no problem. 😀
Why are some ads redirecting to the Apple Store? Who benefits from this? If it was the apps people are being redirected to, then it would be simple for Apple to simply remove the offending app from the store.
That’d be a good way to eliminate competitors.
theblaze.com is a common culprit
Also video game websites. IGN and Dualshockers have been problems for me, along with MDN. When it gets annoying I usually do a “clear all websites and data” from the settings and that seems to be a temporary fix.
Looking forward to this getting sorted!
I’ve mot been having redirect issues through Safari but I am having them when using a certain social networking app. I get requests from people trying to chat me up and their profile either indicates they are thousands of miles away, or the person’s personal statistics indicate they are only 2’4″. When I try to block them the fraudulent profile redirects to an advertisers web site.
This is an issue of unscrupulous advertisers linking into an app through click ads and then redirecting.
it’s not just Safari. I’ve had it happen reading this site using Reeder.
Oh My Gosh!!!! I thought it was just me. On vacation in Europe for a month and all I brought was my iPad and iPhone. Everytime I tried to surf the web, those damn ads would redirect me to the App Store. Drove me nuts!!!
Seems much much better. Thank you. I was going crazy because my browser was telling me the site has to reload because of a problem. It was like Safari was having a nervous breakdown.
Anyway today things are acting, as they should.
“You can stop this from happening in your browser of choice on your iOS device by enabling Guided Access in Settings>General>Accessibility. This will prevent the App Store from being launched out of Safari unless you want it to do so.”
Well isn’t that completely easy to find and intuitive. Thanks for hiding that where no one would look and with a label that doesn’t explain what it does at all. Thanks ever so much, Apple.
/s
Why don’t you all use the MDN app instead of a browser? It never redirects away. 😳
I went back and read the MDN take. MDN wants to pass the buck to Apple but it is in fact MDN who partners with ad hustlers that do this. IMO blaming Apple for your business decision to partner with ‘rogue’ advertisers is not Apples fault. Sorry MDN love your site and MDN takes but you are the one that makes deals with advertisers for your site, not Apple.
Yeah, you’re wrong. This issue has and continues to affect nearly ALL major ad networks, from AdSense on down. It’s not MDN’s or any website’s fault at all.
As MDN explained quite well and clearly, the blame rests with the ad networks for lax security and with Apple for not doing more to address this issue. Clearly Apple knows they have a responsibility as they’ve tried to block this in the past.
I’m tired of people like you wrongly affixing blame. You have no fscking idea what you’re talkign about. Stop making things up. Your opinion is meaningless vs. actual facts.
Yeah, it’s happening again. These are the true douchebags, Apple Watch Edition buyers.
If the advertisers websites are doing this and redirecting to an App Store app, it is feasible to ban the app? I imagine that the app owner is paying for the advertiser to doing this.
I’ve been having this issue with my iPhone 4s running IOS 6.
This and all those effing little banners they put on top of the web pages almost makes me want to stop using smartphones. It’s starting to suck…
MDN I formerly apologize for cursing you over this.
MDN: why aren’t you outing and naming the ad networks and executives that are allowing this to occur and listing the products and companies benefitting from the ads delivered via malware? If we all hit these companies in the pocket book and with terrible PR, I’ll bet this crap will stop.
Permanent Solution: Throw ECMAScript (aka ‘JavaScript’) into the trash can of history and start again. Curse you Netscape for perpetrating the source version of this horror-of-the-Internet!
Meanwhile: Every malevolent contortion of JavaScript has to be identified then actively blocked. This is going to end up as either an extension to Apple’s Xprotect anti-malware solution, or an anti-malevolent JavaScript equivalent.
IOW: JavaScript, despite its wonderful functionality, is a huge PITA.
I would love for Apple to give us a way to turn OFF Javascript on a per site basis (on the Mac and iOS). I would turn off Javascript when visiting MDN (but would leave it on for LinkedIn).
I agree. The closest we’ve got for Safari is either the JavaScript Blocker extension or the JavaScript Blacklist extension. There are one or two others that have some affect on JavaScript. Both of the above are kind of annoying to use but do allow permanent settings regarding individual websites, mostly.
MDN says “…we’re not causing these redirects. Reddit is not causing the redirects. Neither is Reuters. Beyond Apple’s responsibility for their users’ experience, the third-party ad networks really need to get a handle on this and vet who they allow into their systems.” And there is an answer of sorts right in there – third-party ad networks are the problem. Stop using them. Cut out the middleman since the model has been hopelessly compromised. Ad placement should be by advertisers who negotiate with site operators. That way, responsibility for the crap would be easy to ascertain. The way it is now, the advertiser says “not my fault, “, the site operator says “not my fault and I’m doing my best to only use good ad networks”, the product-maker says “we only contract with a legit advertising agency”, and the user says “I hate what the ads cause, nobody’s accountable, I don’t even like ads anyway, I won’t buy these damned products, and I want to stop rewarding sites that allow this crap to get to me!”.
The problem is that the current system is efficient and logistically appealing. It’s also compromised and ineffective. I’d start confining my buying to product makers who start proclaiming that their products are no longer to be advertised through ad networks if such an initiative ever is adopted.
It’s happening in Safari in Mac OS X 10.10.x, too. 🙁
For me, of all the sites that I regularly visit (~20 or so), MDN is the only one that exhibits this redirect behavior to the App Store. In fact, I have given up on reading MDN from my iPhone 5s. It’s unusable.
I understand that the Ad Networks are the source of the problem. I am also sensitive to MDN needing to run advertising as a source of revenue. Sites like this don’t run themselves for free.
However, MDN is responsible for choosing which Ad Networks they do business with. As another commenter wrote, they could out the offending networks or not do business with them. To shift the blame and responsibility solely to the Ad Networks is disingenuous on MDN’s part.
The fix of turning on guided access lasted about 2 minutes. My redirect problem is coming when I tap on a posted link on Twitter. Help anyone?