Ask HN: Privacy Focused Ad Network? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Privacy Focused Ad Network?

16 pointschris_f15 comments

I am soon releasing a privacy based search engine (similar in concept to DuckDuckGo, StartPage, etc).

Context based search ads are the obvious path to monetization, but I am having trouble finding an ad network that fits with principles of the site (i.e. no user tracking or storing search queries).

I have looked at Context Cue (https://contextcue.com/), but the ads are embedded with third-party JavaScript and they record users' IP address/user agent, which are both deal breakers.

Is anyone aware of an ad network that prioritizes user privacy. I am also open to any alternative ideas to monetize the site, as long it protects user privacy and also adds value to the user.

View on HN

I run https://codefund.io. We have been focusing on providing ethical advertising to support open source development for nearly 3 years. We provide both javascript-based ad embedding, as well as server-to-server. Our platform is 100% open source [1]. We do not store any IP addresses, nor any identifiable information on ad viewers. We are even endorsed by DuckDuckGo as a viable alternative to Google Ads [2]. Our platform is whitelisted with AcceptableAds.com as well [3].

1. https://github.com/gitcoinco/code_fund_ads

2. https://spreadprivacy.com/how-to-remove-google/

3. https://acceptableads.com/en/solutions

This is so cool! I've been writing ad software for the greater part of the decade, and my dream has always been to write my own small app to serve ads like how you are describing, but I'd be afraid that nobody would find value in it because there would be obvious restrictions beyond geo targeting.

It's great to see that you've proven it's possible and made it open source on top of it!

Why not sell locally hosted ads for keywords directly? The only other way to do it would be to check in with an ad provider periodically and update your ads from their list. In my simple model, there would be no tracking, and the ads would have to have noticeable impact for customer sales to establish value.

Just to flesh that out with a little context, I posted this on mastodon a few months ago: "Maybe I should make what I hate most: an ad company. Something with no javascript, no click tracking (heck why make an ad into a link at all...), no demographic personalization, no video, and simple honest accounting of ad placement (eg, ad was on xxx.yyy for zzz days, you owe us a buck). We'll target smaller sites looking to monetize content without driving away their users, and make it easy to serve ads from your own domain to reduce the chance they are blocked. Also it will be very inexpensive. That's the right way to do it."

I run https://officesnapshots.com and we sell and self host our own advertising and have experience with this concept.

Even before building any tech, I would say the most important thing would be to find a website and try to sell ads for them. You could then add some html to their site to test the concept and build some trust with both the publisher and advertiser.

If the publisher uses Google Ads, see which advertisers already spend money to advertise on the site and approach them directly to buy a month of ads at something like a 25% discount. 25% off is less than they were paying, but 75% is more than what Google was paying the publisher.

I agree completely. That would be the optimal solution, it would just take a lot of effort on top of the focus of building the core project. I was hoping to avoid the complexity of building my own ad system and selling the ads directly, but I'm not sure if an ad network currently exists that fits my needs.

I could be completely wrong, but I believe there is a market for exactly what you describe in your mastodon post. At least I am in that very market.

^ This has been exactly my experience too. I wanted an ad network that fit the above description, briefly thought about trying to build one, decided that definitely wasn't what I wanted to spend my time on, and held out a small hope that one day somebody would.

If you guys want to grab an IRC room for a bit, we could work out how this could be accomplished for at least a prototype.

I don't have IRC :)

What I will say is: I think the technical side is the easy part. Just serving static content. The hard part, which is also much less fun, is the business side of acquiring customers who want to advertise. Not only is there a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, it'd require marketing, negotiating, maybe inroads in certain circles, knowledge of the market, etc. That's the point at which I decided I didn't want to mess with it haha.

Sounds like we need cofounders. :)

I have also thought about trying to start the world's first ethical advertising company. I certainly wish success to whoever tries.

We are trying with CodeFund

[Edit: I just noticed my partner already mentioned our service, I removed the url]

> "it will be very inexpensive"

then your publishers will make very little money.

Seems like this would be something to sell to folks that are willing to leave a little money on the table, if it's better to do so.

I also just came across this, https://www.ethicalads.io/

It looks promising, but it hasn't launched yet and I can't get the "subscribe to updates" form to send me a confirmation email.

https://web.archive.org/web/20170402074823/http://decknetwor...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com