Some malicious pop-up ads are easy to avoid. When hackers create fake website pop-up ads to try and infect your device with malware, it’s called malvertising. This means clicking on a pop-up ad can be dangerous because it could download malware to your device. Done right, pop-up ads can successfully get us to sign up for emails and subscribe to site updates.īut pop-up ads can also be used by hackers who exploit vulnerabilities in a web browser’s security. Behind the curtain, pop-ups mainly use JavaScript to pop up in a new window.Īdvertisers use pop-ups to draw in new customers.
On our end, pop-up ads seem to suddenly appear, usually disrupting whatever we’re doing on the web page we’re visiting.