Have you noticed more and more popup ads and spam texts on your mobile device lately?

As consumers adopt smartphones and tablets in droves, mobile advertisers are adopting increasingly aggressive methods of ad delivery. Unfortunately for the consumer, rules of acceptable mobile ad practices have yet to be defined.

In January we saw one particularly aggressive ad network used to monetized several free Android apps. Symantec initially identified this as malware called "Android.Counterclank," but hours later, Lookout Mobile Security said the SDK in question was really an aggressive ad network called "Apperhand" that placed a search icon on your mobile desktop without your permission, and pushed ads through the notice bar. 

Fortunately Lookout has created a very neat, free app called Ad Network Detector that scans all the apps in your phone and tells you what ad networks have been installed. It tells you how they display ads, what information they collect from your phone in the process, and how you can opt out, if that's an option. So far the app checks for SDKs from 35 of the biggest ad networks, including Google AdMob, InMobi, and Milennial.

A scan on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus with 134 apps exposed an icky collection of ad networks:

I am definitely uninstalling Brightest Flashlight Free: 

Interestingly, Lookout senior product manager for security Derek Halliday said that for larger mainstream networks like AdMob and JumpTap, there is no real opt-out path. You can only opt not to receive targeted ads. The only way to get rid of the network is to get rid of the app. 

Android users, check out Ad Network Detector today. Ad network auditing isn't part of Lookout's mobile security offering, Lookout for Android ($2.99/mo, direct) or Lookout for iPhone (free, direct), but hopefully it will be soon. TrustGo Labs also offers Ad Detector for Android, which performs a similar function.