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Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

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Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#161

Post by stjohnswarts »

ars wrote: post #49
Shank wrote: post #15

As someone who operated on the "adult internet" with payment processors and related infrastructure without being 18, I still carry forward the constant fear that I'll be banned for retroactive Terms of Service violations incurred when I was a kid. It really sucks when it's services like AdSense because you're just screwed forever. I really really wish the internet was more supportive of "early hackers" who want to ex…

The escape hatch is the parent opening the account in their own name. Companies don't have a choice here: Someone under 18 can not enter into a contract, there's nothing really they can do.

They have a choice. They could ban him until he's 18 or 5 years lapse whichever is longer. It's not black and white and doesn't need to be for life. I know the google guy who informed him he was banned for life has no power over that though. This is a straight up decision from much higher up than his pay grade. So he informed the person and locked it. It's all he could really do. I hope the internet rage-brigade doesn't do anything bad to him.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#162

Post by ceejayoz »

waffleiron wrote: post #155
ceejayoz wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd be required to correct the age, but they wouldn't be required to delete the "this person defrauded us by giving a false age" flag/note on your internal profile.

I think they’d have a hard time justifying the legitimate interest assessment to keep that data forever. I agree with your statement though, but the GDPR issue is the retention time, not a DSAR issue.

"I have a legitimate interest in never doing business with someone who defrauded me" seems like a reasonably easy argument to make.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#163

Post by stjohnswarts »

Semaphor wrote: post #48
Swizec wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if a parent agrees to whatever activity is being done My mom definitely wouldn’t be able to provide informed consent to half the stuff I was doing on the internet in high school and middle school even if I told her about it. She worried, I’m sure, but between speaking next to zero english and the novelty of www in the early 00’s, best she could do was threaten to take the computer if things got too weird.

When I was a kid, i hosted WC3 beta cracks, patches, and servers on our ISP Webspace. Blizzard had some call our ISP, who called my dad, who told me to stop doing whatever it was that got people mad It feel like nowadays, it'd have resulted in a lawsuit, but at least threatening lawyer letters. edit: Archive.org link to the site. With a visitor counter and cringy teeny-sounding English ;) https://web.archive.org/web/…

Nowadays they would have tried to get you taken from your parents and sent to an Activision owned private prison facility to stamp out Blizzard game stickers.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#164

Post by maxbond »

ceejayoz wrote: post #84
romwell wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the solution is "the right to fucking delete your account forver". Google keeping "limbo" accounts is dystopian, and seems like a GDPR violation to me.

It's not a GDPR violation. https://gdpr.eu/recital-47-overriding-legitimate-interest/ > The processing of personal data strictly necessary for the purposes of preventing fraud also constitutes a legitimate interest of the data controller concerned.

I wonder if you could argue that it isn't "strictly necessary" after a certain point though. Does ToS abuse by minors in this way really predict fraud 15 years later? If the SNR of a signal decays over time, at a certain point do the interests of liberty exceed the interests of preventing fraud?

I have absolutely no idea and am not a lawyer, it just seems to me that the word "strictly" is meant to indicate that it isn't pixie dust companies can sprinkle on any piece of information as they choose. The rest of the language here seems to stress that there has to be some sort of test which demonstrates that the interests of the controller overrides the interest of the data subject.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#165

Post by logicalmonster »

Is it uncharitable to say that Google has intentionally stolen millions of dollars from kids?

They seem to have engineered a set of rules where they work around having to ever pay a bunch of people for content that was produced and had ads displayed on it.

Maybe the kids can't legally sign a contract, but Google still made money from them. Has Google forfeited this money or are they profiting off of child labor?

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#166

Post by winkeltripel »

chickenpotpie wrote: post #21

Worth noting that this is the statement of a "product expert" which is just some random person not an employee of the company our the actual policy. This might be true but this isn't a reliable source.

Note that Google chooses to rely on these product experts instead of helping, or providing sources of information itself.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#167

Post by f1shy »

RHSeeger wrote: post #152
that_guy_iain wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As someone who operated on the "adult internet" with payment processors and related infrastructure without being 18, I still carry forward the constant fear that I'll be banned for retroactive Terms of Service violations incurred when I was a kid. It really sucks when it's services like AdSense because you're just screwed forever. The thing is, most parents wouldn't even think "Oh, you'll need to do that in my name…

> The thing is, most parents wouldn't even think "Oh, you'll need to do that in my name." I certainly wouldn't think that, as it sounds like horrible idea. Your teenage child posts one picture of themselves in a compromising situation, and suddenly you're lost all access to your accounts for the rest of your life. I'll pass, thanks. And, yes, I get the "educate your children" thing.. but children do stupid things. He…

Or let me put it this way: if I would be judged with that severity for all stupid things I did, I would be in guantanamo.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#168

Post by waffleiron »

ceejayoz wrote: post #162
waffleiron wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they’d have a hard time justifying the legitimate interest assessment to keep that data forever. I agree with your statement though, but the GDPR issue is the retention time, not a DSAR issue.

"I have a legitimate interest in never doing business with someone who defrauded me" seems like a reasonably easy argument to make.

It’s an easy argument, but that doesn’t make it correct. Within law “crimes” have a statue of limitations and almost never infinite long punishment. A strong argument is needed to override someones rights for an unlimited time like that.

If you work in the EU, have a chat with your DPO/Privacy team cause I bet they would actually find this an interesting conversation too.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#169

Post by stjohnswarts »

doodlesdev wrote: post #55
testfoobar wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you did not note that the banned person was 16 years old. There should be very few actions with life long consequences for any 16 year old. Their prefrontal cortex is not fully developed. They experiment and engage with the world to learn its boundaries and limits. Click fraud for $80 when 16yo does not warrant a lifetime ban.

I beg do differ. When I was a kid I used to have a YouTube channel with AdSense. Difference being I actually read the ToS and decided that it would be my parents channel, only I would be recording. Never clicked on my channels ads (in fact that's when I started using AdBlockers, for the sole purpose of not generating fraudulent ad revenue). Reading at 16 years old is not that hard. I created that YouTube channel much…

This idea of never forgive, never forget is why the USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Punishment is the singular goal, and rehabilitation is considered weakness. This kind of thinking is antisocial and serves no purpose other than some kind of revenge fantasy.

Re: Google Adsense/Admob blocks you for life if you use it before you're 18

#170

Post by f1shy »

Shank wrote: post #15

As someone who operated on the "adult internet" with payment processors and related infrastructure without being 18, I still carry forward the constant fear that I'll be banned for retroactive Terms of Service violations incurred when I was a kid. It really sucks when it's services like AdSense because you're just screwed forever. I really really wish the internet was more supportive of "early hackers" who want to ex…

> I get that there are tons of implications around contract law and child labor here, but there really needs to be an escape hatch

Specially, if you the intend is to "protect" children, this is not helpful.

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