Adsterra

Overview

Adsterra is a global advertising network that connects publishers with advertisers across display, popunder, social bar, native, and direct link ad formats. Its scripts are deployed on publisher websites to serve ad creatives, manage ad placements, and report performance metrics back to the Adsterra platform for revenue tracking and campaign optimization.

What This Script Does

Adsterra's scripts load from domains including ad.srtk.net, acscdn.com, and adsterra.com, performing the following operations:

• Ad rendering: Injects ad creatives (display banners, popunder windows, native ad units, and social bar notifications) into designated ad slots or as overlay elements on the page.
• Popunder ads: Opens new browser windows or tabs behind the current page, triggered by user click events on the publisher page.
• Push notification subscriptions: May prompt visitors to subscribe to browser push notifications for future ad delivery.
• Cookies: Sets third-party cookies for frequency capping (limiting how often the same ad is shown), audience targeting, and cross-site user identification for conversion attribution.
• Tracking pixels: Fires impression and click tracking pixels to report ad performance to advertisers and measure campaign conversions.
• Data collection: Collects IP address, browser and device information, referring URL, and behavioral signals for ad targeting and fraud detection.

Consent & Compliance

Adsterra falls under the marketing consent category. All of its client-side operations serve advertising purposes.

Under GDPR and ePrivacy, Adsterra's scripts require explicit opt-in consent before loading. The third-party cookies, cross-site tracking, push notification prompts, and behavioral data collection all constitute non-essential processing. Popunder ads are particularly scrutinized as they create new browsing contexts without explicit user action.

Under CCPA/CPRA, Adsterra's data collection and sharing with advertisers constitutes "selling" and "sharing" personal information for targeted advertising, requiring opt-out mechanisms.

Should You Block This Without Consent?

Yes. Adsterra scripts set tracking cookies, collect behavioral data, and serve targeted advertising. Block all Adsterra scripts until the user grants marketing consent. This includes popunder scripts, display ad loaders, and push notification prompt scripts.