I now assume that all ads on Apple news are scams

Apple News Ads just started in 2024. Maybe they are still learning how to battle the dark side of the Internet.

Use other platforms. Don't use Apple News. You could use an AI chatbot to find news for you. It has no ads, much easier to read, totally free, and tailored to your instructions.

I assume all ads are scams. That's easier.

You should assume all ads are complete scams.

Some of them are funded by scamming others, crypto, VC, etc. Even the first link in the article [0] has a VC backed startup advertising (they paid $11K!) that nobody asked for.

There is no such thing as an ethical ad whatsoever.

[0] https://daringfireball.net/2024/07/apple_taboola_sitting_in_...

I tried an iphone once about 6 years ago, but once I realized all browsers were essentially safari and there WAS NO ADBLOCKING, I was disgusted to emphatically go back to Android and Firefox with ublock plus. Apple is like the US government protecting pedophiles, but protecting adware and everything wrong with the internet, forcing people to be insecure and watch ads. I feel bad for apple users unable to use a clean ad-free internet.

This is true of all news sites, some hearing aid, you wont believe, why your pet does X etc etc

We use a PiHole, plus ad-blocking browsers, so we see very few ads. According to Claude, around 40% of users in the West use ad-blockers at least some of the time.

You would think that advertisers would understand that they are killing the goose? They have made ads pervasive, annoying and untrustworthy. Hence, fewer and fewer people are willing to put up with them.

Perhaps enshittification will eventually hit a wall. One can hope.

Apple News+ is so bad, it's literally unusable. Unfortunately I can't unsubscribe without paying MORE. I use all the other services on a family subscription except this one, but if I remove it the total cost goes up. I hate that I'm supporting something that is this bad, and the quantity of ads is the main factor - not only am I a paying customer, it's still filled with the worst kind of promoted 'content'.

This is one of the reasons I’m so glad Anthropic (at least for now) is positioning itself away from ads in chats as a monetization strategy. It was so nice to see a company shifting AWAY from the enshitification of products. I’m disheartened to see the recent stumbles by Apple, this Taboola association just seems so sketchy. It’s quite a jarring juxtaposition when you see those types of ads next to important stories. Even on other news sites. I just don’t get it. I mean, I get it from they “hey more money for shareholders” angle, but not from a “this is worth cheapening our brand, making our products worse and not caring about what users/customers actually want” angle.

As a former adtech guy, as a general rule of thumb, I consider _all ads everywhere_ to be scams.

Apple using Taboola is so hysterical because of their claim to focus on user experience. Taboola ads are a chumbox of the absolute worst bullshit ads on the market. The only thing worse is the zergnet stuff.

why does an RSS feed aggregator even need ads in the first place?

I just want to use this space to say that I hate the fake AI-generated ripped tai-chi guy from the Youtube ads SO MUCH.

This suggests that there are online ads that are not scams. Who knew?

Let me fix this, "I now assume that all ads are scams"

I used to have access to Apple II. This was about the only Apple I liked. After that my every encounter turned me off or whatever reasons

Is there a compelling alternative to the subscription part of Apple News (which gives access to a wide variety of publications' paywalled content for $13/month)?

For people who dropped this, was there something better you switched to?

Anyone who pays $1000 dollars for a phone has already been scammed once, so they make a good target for scammers.

Why would Apple enshittify their News app in this way when there are so many legitimate advertisers out there? It seems obviously damaging to their brand, so it makes no sense to me.

Well, most ads are.

It's the very rare advert that speaks to you, and informs you, and simply makes you aware of its existence without the ridiculous, oversized, plastic cherry on top.

Apple News itself is a scam. The journalism there is filled with clickbait headlines. Apple News accelerated the drop in quality from the transformation between print and digital news. They just need you to click on the headline, and most people don't even do that.

I see a future where people can earn a bit of money letting corporate AI Agents have access to their accounts to engage in conversation with followers or post comments and subtly push product recommendations. The more high value followers or friends you have, the more you could earn!

The fact that I want to delete it infuriates me. The fact that you can't delete the app infuriates me more.

I open it semi-regularly with some naive hope that it won't be garbage.

Cyber crime case closure rates, from what I can find online, were sub 5%.

What's special about Apple news? That should be the default position on ads no matter where you see it.

So close to getting it.

all ads are scams, in the sense that all cops are bastards - not so much that every individual cop is a bastard, more that the institution of advertising enshrines, encourages, and rewards scamming its audience. Do honest ads exist? Sure - but since you’ll never know which is which, you’re better off avoiding them as a rule, the risk is not worth the reward.

Is it possible to change the institution of policing, such that the bastards will be punished and excluded and removed as a general consideration? It’s possible, yes, but there are so many dollars tied up in the advertising industry that it’s pretty hard to imagine.

Oof this is disappointing. Taboola for me represents the worst of the ad industry. Apple falling for it just shows how much of a flop their news app is.

Surely what they make from these ads is negligible enough to not warrant the terrible user experience for something users pay for. The ads in Apple News are infuriating.

I stopped using it about a year ago and I’m so much better for it. It was shocking that Apple would deliver a feed filled with so much tabloid trash and gross ads about plastic surgery and weight loss. It’s really a gross product.

At this stage pretty much all ads on the internet are scams

Probably simpler to assume all ads are scams and work back from there

But these are just the same ads as on Google and everywhere else. Almost all internet ads are scam nowadays.

All ads are scams. That's life. Only children and the elderly click on them anyway, and they are optimised to be clicked on by those since otherwise it just doesn't work at all.

More to that - many of the ads today aren't even scams. They merely exist as a deliberate source of annoyance to compel the person to pay for an ad-free premium version, like 90s era "nag screens" on shareware.

Times when ads could give a legit business any positive conversion, are long gone.

Mark my words, Apple is going to go full enshittification in the next 5 years because they've squeezed every last drop out of hardware pricing.

Especially with the failed Apple Intelligence that they will now have to pay their way out of.

All ads are scams.

what about the #1 result in any research in Apple store

100% shit

this is the enshittification of the world. players like taboola.com are responsible for this.

have u ever been to truth social? it's the most user-hostile experience since the days of limewire and bonzai buddy - https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump

Hi, I'm the person who wrote this article, and I thank whoever posted it here. One comment I'm seeing below is: all ads are scams.

I think that's a bit of an exaggeration. Ads are capitalist tools to get you to buy things, but in most cases, you get the thing you buy. I'm into photography, books, and music, for example, and the ads I see for cameras aren't scams, nor are ads for books or records. Some of them may attempt to to manipulate you to part with your money, but this sort of scam is different.

One problem with Apple News on the iPad or Mac is the size of the ads. Yes, I notice them and generally scroll past them, but they are huge and obtrusive. I've been noticing these obvious AI ads for a couple of months; especially the one with the mug or the totebags. But they have become endemic recently.

Someone I know said that he assumes all ads on Instagram are scams. I don't use IG, but I do use Facebook to keep up with local groups. There was a period where there were tons of those "going out of business ads," and I reported many of them. But I'd say about half the ads I see now are brands I know. Presumably, since IG uses the same algorithm and personal data, my experience there would be the same.

I think the problem with Apple News is that it's not widely used, and advertisers don't see it as a good place to spend their money. Since Apple started using Taboola, it's pure enshittification.

It's worth noting that in Apple's earnings call last year, they said that their profit margin on services was 78%. While Apple News probably doesn't account for much in that number, it seems like much of the company, as far as services are concerned, is aiming for cash over quality.

[dead]

[dead]

This is a bit silly. Are there any ads that people do trust?

Just assume all ads everywhere are scams, it’s an accurate enough heuristic

Nice - Another post shaming Apple for a problem which the entire internet faces.

I'll load up Facebook right now and get the same things. Google? The same.

And to no surprise, ads like these break Apple's ad content guidelines[1].

OP should figuratively put down the video camera and go perform CPR. Report the Ad. Make the internet a better place.

[1]: https://support.apple.com/en-au/guide/adguide/apd527d891a8/1...