Buzzfeed News has discovered a  sophisticated digital advertising fraud scheme targeting Android devices, in which ads were shown to bots, not real users. The article estimates that those behind the scheme “stole close to $10 million from advertisers who used Google’s ad network to place ads in the affected websites and apps”. The fraudulent scheme operated across a  large network of Android apps, including some aimed at children.  It raises major questions about the reviews process used by Google. The article noted that “the Google Play store has a less rigorous app review process than Apple’s App Store.” Here’s some of what Buzzfeed News found:

An investigation by BuzzFeed News reveals that these seemingly separate apps and companies are today part of a massive, sophisticated digital advertising fraud scheme involving more than 125 Android apps and websites connected to a network of front and shell companies in Cyprus, Malta, British Virgin Islands, Croatia, Bulgaria, and elsewhere. More than a dozen of the affected apps are targeted at kids or teens, and a person involved in the scheme estimates it has stolen hundreds of millions of dollars from brands whose ads were shown to bots instead of actual humans.

An ongoing study by Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts claims that Sprint is throttling Skype without telling customers.

Choffnes and his team analyzed more than 719,417 tests conducted by 100,000 users across 135 countries, and discovered that wireless carriers routinely throttle streaming video applications. While carriers often claim this kind of throttling only occurs in response to network congestion, evidence suggests the practice is often tied to efforts to upsell users to pricier plans.

We need net neutrality more than ever.