How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads
231–240 of 262 posts
Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads
#232Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads
#233Google 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…
Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads
#234Google 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…
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On OSM, well, most things are out of date.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 And unlike Google and Apple maps, most of the businesses in my area are years out of date, so I can't effectively use it to find information either, so I just don't have any reason to interact with it.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
#235Earlier 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…
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
#236When 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...
also, searches for dmv related content
Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads
#237I 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…
Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads
#238Earlier 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…
"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
#239Earlier 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.
Re: How I advertise malicious software on Google Ads
#240Earlier 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.