Lesser known mobile adtech domains where data is sent

https://jamesoclaire.com/2025/08/28/uncovering-lesser-known-mobile-adtech-domains/

by ddxv • 11 months ago

107 24 11 months ago

ddxv7• 11 months ago

Just wanted to share a quick blog about figuring out who owns the lesser known adtech domains since most of these I couldn't find anything about when I did quick searches.

If you found this interesting, let me know!

qingcharles2• 11 months ago

Good info!

What's the best way to log the API calls from an Android app? I want to document the undocumented API calls the Reddit app makes.

adithyassekhar• 11 months ago

Without root, pcapdroid might work.

ddxv7• 11 months ago

You can follow my tutorial here: https://github.com/ddxv/mobile-network-traffic

Overview: I use Waydroid + MITM

Feel free to contact me for a call if you need help. Additionally, I'll scan the Reddit app, the new API calls should show up in a day or two on AppGoblin: https://appgoblin.info/apps/com.reddit.frontpage/data-flows

You can see some of the SDKs Reddit's Android app uses from a decompile in October 2024: https://appgoblin.info/apps/com.reddit.frontpage/sdks

Let me know if there was something specific to look for for the API calls, usually I don't interact with the app, but I can do it manually if there is something interesting to check out.

Happy to share the raw MITM logs with you as well.

6LLvveMx2koXfwn• 11 months ago

Just an FYI your link to this conversation actually goes to: https: //appgoblin.info/apps/com.adidas.app/sdks

ddxv7• 11 months ago

Thanks, my bad, will fix.

netsharc• 11 months ago

I've started noticing unity3d.com, I thought it was a game... oh, nope, they also operate an ad network called Unity Ads, I guess they like their reputation!

miohtama• 11 months ago

It's spyware they acquired some time ago, discussed here

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44334167

anttiharju• 11 months ago

Unity Ads have been a thing long before (2014) ironSource merger (2022)

https://unity.com/news/unity-technologies-acquire-applifier-...

https://unity.com/blog/news/welcome-ironsource

politelemon• 11 months ago

Nice work on the author to do this digging. Thanks for sharing it.

marketingcloudapis.com has namesevers on salesforce.com and I see it in their documentation too, so it's Salesforce integration?

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/marketing/marketing-cl...

ddxv7• 11 months ago

Wow! That's it! Docs match and each app has a SalesForce SDK as well: https://appgoblin.info/apps/com.adidas.app/sdks

Did you just search that and find it or did you recognize it? I tried searching but not sure what I was missing.

PS: I'll update the article to say it's Salesforce and give you a shoutout, thanks again!

tux3• 11 months ago

Nit: You updated the wrong line in your table at the end!

DownGoat2• 11 months ago

Would be interesting to snatch one of these domains should the ever be available. If the author has a list of the domains 40k different apps called, there must be some requests going out to domains that are no longer registered.

ddxv7• 11 months ago

That's pretty interesting! I was surprised how many domains like this show up as fairly recent registrations.

mxuribe• 11 months ago

So, the mischievous part of my brain is activated....what could be done with such domain names? :-)

DownGoat2• 11 months ago

Depends a lot on what they were used for. Maybe they are downloading some HTML to render in a view, images, icons or other assets, or just posting some form of telemetry.

raffael_de• 11 months ago

Seems like none of those 8 domains is denied by my Pi-hole :/ Added them manually but I'd prefer to rely on Pi-holes blacklists.

mmsc• 11 months ago

It'd be nice to have a feature in uBlock origin where you can block certain websites' ip addresses, with a requirement to re-resolve the ip address every few days to ensure the ip hasn't been rotated (blocking unnecessary websites due to the cache).

noja• 11 months ago

Reminder that a website you are visiting may be proxying your data to the adtech company through their services a domain.

Check out the Facebook Conversions API Gateway.

usernomdeguerre• 11 months ago

qa-analytics.com's oldest entry in Internet archive redirects to www.qwickanalytics.com, so not sure if that domain changed hands?

ddxv7• 11 months ago

Given it's sending an internal Unity app id it must have become available and later purchased. It looks like qwickanalytics still exists and is selling analytics for bankers, so unlikely it's working so closely with a game engine?

ectospheno• 11 months ago

This is the first site I’ve encountered that caused Obsidian Web Clipper to fail.

Lesser known mobile adtech domains where data is sent

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