“You Are Deceived in the Pocket”: An Exploratory Study of Intrusive Advertisements in Mobile Applications

Mobile advertising has become the primary monetization module for the Android ecosystem. However, this growth is accompanied by increasingly complex intrusive advertisements that undermine user agency through sophisticated behavioral interference. Current research on intrusive advertising primarily targets web or in-browser environments, failing to address the unique in-app characteristics of mobile intrusive ads. Existing ad analysis tools struggle to distinguish voluntary human actions from forced interactions due to the absence of intent-aware modeling. Furthermore, existing marketplace policies and legal frameworks lack unified terminology and enforceable rules, leading to inconsistent oversight. In this paper, we conduct an exploratory study to systematically investigate and model these intrusive advertising behaviors. We propose a formal taxonomy grounded in regulatory policies, platform governance guidelines, industry standards, and documented real-world intrusive advertising practices from major SDK providers. Based on it, we apply an automated pipeline to detect intrusive patterns. Our analysis of more than 6,000 apps confirms the prevalence of mobile intrusive ads. Additionally, we perform a comparative analysis of mainstream regulations, uncovering significant misalignments in policy standards across different jurisdictions. Our study establishes a critical, theoretical, and practical foundation for ecosystem governance, enabling more effective detection and evidence-based policy refinement.