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How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

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Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#232
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uhhh.. They actively particpated in the sluaghter of over 10k children in the last two years and fired all their employeess who spoke up regarding it.

oh boy, that's quite the stretch...

what part?

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#233

Google has forgotten the plot. A quick tangent story follows: I attempted to add a Tesla Supercharger as it went live to Google Maps. I was the very first to pay to recharge at the new location. The process went something like this: 1st time: Uploaded 4 photos, local business info, current charger prices, and GPS coordinates. Google replied this would be sent to human review. It was rejected within 6 minutes. 2nd att…

Why would you help build Google's place-database moat for them for free?

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#234
post #34

Google has forgotten the plot. A quick tangent story follows: I attempted to add a Tesla Supercharger as it went live to Google Maps. I was the very first to pay to recharge at the new location. The process went something like this: 1st time: Uploaded 4 photos, local business info, current charger prices, and GPS coordinates. Google replied this would be sent to human review. It was rejected within 6 minutes. 2nd att…

FWIW, editing OpenStreetMap is very straightforward*, and with that, you're actually contributing to an open data set that everyone is allowed to use, rather than just propping up Google. (To be fair, on a laptop - I'm sure Google Maps is more straightforward on a phone. But for someone already prepared to invest this much effort, editing OSM should be well within range. And if you just enjoy contributing to maps, fo…

I think "very straightforward" is vastly overselling how easy editing OSM is.

It feels like editing a database, without any affordances for easily making common updates.

If the hours of a store are wrong on Google Maps, I just upload a photo of their store, and it'll be corrected quickly.

On OSM, well, most things are out of date. There's no simple 'update this business' flow, just a database editor. And a map that feels like I could break anything by clicking in the wrong spot.

OSM is a cool project, but it isn't straightforward. And unlike Google and Apple maps, most of the businesses in my area are years out of date, so I can't effectively use it to find information either, so I just don't have any reason to interact with it. Plus no aerial/satellite/streetview imagery, which I understand is probably infeasible, but ultimately it just means OSM is a niche product that won't replace Google.

So yeah, I'm propping up Google, but I get way more benefit out of it than having an open data set used to power Amazon's delivery driver routes or whatever.

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#235
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, editing OpenStreetMap is very straightforward*, and with that, you're actually contributing to an open data set that everyone is allowed to use, rather than just propping up Google. (To be fair, on a laptop - I'm sure Google Maps is more straightforward on a phone. But for someone already prepared to invest this much effort, editing OSM should be well within range. And if you just enjoy contributing to maps, fo…

I think "very straightforward" is vastly overselling how easy editing OSM is. It feels like editing a database, without any affordances for easily making common updates. If the hours of a store are wrong on Google Maps, I just upload a photo of their store, and it'll be corrected quickly. On OSM, well, most things are out of date. There's no simple 'update this business' flow, just a database editor. And a map that f…

skill issue.

there's at least three user friendly and better than google maps UX clients.

but i guess they didn't bundle with your pixel nor have all the darkpatterns you got used to.

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#236
post #72

When you search "us passport" or "tsa precheck" on Google, you constantly see promoted ad results impersonating government sites (ie passportvisarush.com or easegov.com) extracting and selling your PII (social security number, etc) from your application. I've reported the ads multiple times, but new ones still end up being promoted. I'm sure these companies have mined and sold thousands of SSN/address/DOB info from u…

These are not illegitimate. They are registered 3rd parties facilitating the government. At least the ones that are on the list are not. I got one from passportsfast or something. Highly recommended (if it's registered) > https://travel.state.gov/en/passports/apply/get-fast/courier...

it's mostly a travesty that only the rigth mix of political apathy and corruption can get you.

also, searches for dmv related content

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#237
post #140

I really wonder about these youtube ads for these (non-existing, AI slop) incel games... it's always the same pattern, a man is exploited and/or rejected by a woman who gets everything for free he has taken from him, is spat on and whatnot, then starts his quest to fight the demoness or whatever. Are there any articles about those and the companies behind them?

non-existing? if we mean the same ads (mainly the cartoonish knight with bluish-black hair, though I've seen a caveman variant from another game) the game does exist. I played it about ten years ago, back when their ads were still the puzzles you supposedly need an IQ of 300 to solve. (kudos for keeping up with the times, I suppose.) /s it's a gacha money-pump, but I don't think the developers are strictly guilty of…

It's also space "survival" games I really doubt exist. And my main charge would be the incel stuff, I could not care less if these games exist or don't. The ads themselves are toxic as fuck.

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#238
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having seen the abuse vectors that get thrown at this and similar products, I suspect it is less about whether they care and more about finding a suitable threshold for some arbitrary features, or moments of demand exceeding the available moderators. The repetitive 6 minutes make me suspect there are reports timing out in the moderator queue and the automod doesn't like images or something. Or, perhaps a part of the…

This is the key to the problem that I think people are missing, possibly because they kind of want to miss it. Google and the other companies hiding behind LLMs and primarily doing it because they can't operate at the scale they do, with the dedicated ecosystems to gaming them that they develop, without this hiding. They can't afford humans to review in a minute or two what scammers can generate in fractions of a sec…

> This is the key to the problem that I think people are missing, possibly because they kind of want to miss it. Google and the other companies hiding behind LLMs and primarily doing it because they can't operate at the scale they do, with the dedicated ecosystems to gaming them that they develop, without this hiding. They can't afford humans to review in a minute or two what scammers can generate in fractions of a second, not even at their scale.

"Alphabet, Google's parent company, reported $112.1 billion in profit for the three months ending in June."

Ah yes, they definitely can't afford it.

I genuinely cannot grasp how someone who is capable of 1. finding hackernews 2. creating an account 3. writing a coherent English comment, can come to such an absurdly wrong understanding.

Scammers generating things in fractions of a second is an incredibly well understood problem that affects every single surface of the earth that has a "submit" button. Even completely anonymous services have largely managed to solve this. Google Maps requires a verified account, meaning it's entirely solvable. It's a non-issue.

Give me $112.1 billion every 3 months and I'll solve it for you, no worries.

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "very straightforward" is vastly overselling how easy editing OSM is. It feels like editing a database, without any affordances for easily making common updates. If the hours of a store are wrong on Google Maps, I just upload a photo of their store, and it'll be corrected quickly. On OSM, well, most things are out of date. There's no simple 'update this business' flow, just a database editor. And a map that f…

skill issue. there's at least three user friendly and better than google maps UX clients. but i guess they didn't bundle with your pixel nor have all the darkpatterns you got used to.

What are they?

Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads

#240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you might not have permission to use the data Isn't it fair use, like training data?

I think the issue is the ToU violation, not copyright.

Violating a ToU is legal, but the corporation might ban you in return because that's legal too. All you give up is your ostensible right not to be banned.
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