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$11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

adsensepublishersettlement.com

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Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#91

Post by cf498 »

When ever I read stories about adsense providers behaving like this, or even "banks" like paypal just closing accounts without any legal security whatsoever, or Websites themself selling user data and serving malware, I always think of situation Warez sites and their users were in a decade ago.

Sure, If you visited specific Warez sites, you could assume that the Ads served will likely infect your machine. And sure, the guys running the websites might not be able to cash out the ad revenue.

But the realization, that a lot of legit businesses today are in the same situation as sites who were run from shady servers in "digital no mans land" by guys concerned that some kind of law enforcement might ask who owns the site is either funny or deeply disturbing.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#93

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #57
dangrossman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the advertiser side of Google's services, I have a refund for "invalid activity" on almost every monthly statement going back nearly a decade. > You received a credit because we found invalid activity on your ads. What is it: Invalid activity refers to clicks and impressions that we suspect aren't the result of genuine customer interest. We don't charge you for invalid activity on your ads. Example: Invalid activi…

Sure, but you'll never be in a position to audit that data. No independent 3rd party verification would ever do for Google ads.

[deleted]

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#95

Post by greglindahl »

iaml wrote: post #87
greglindahl wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All ad networks take money away from publishers all of the time. For example, it takes a while to compute the quality score of ad clicks and realize that a site's traffic is full of bots that click on ads and never buy anything. The publisher will see income that gets subtracted back out, sometimes a month or two later. The advertiser (presumably) gets a refund. It appears that Google did something different this tim…

Interesting, I've seen people advice each other to support apps they can't buy by tapping on ads - were they actually harming devs?

Yes.

And if your webpage says something like "please click on the ads to support my website", you'll get a warning from Google. Presumably they also look for suggestions like that within apps.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#96

Post by kbwt »

tedivm wrote: post #39

When I was in college I had a website that I ran google ads on. I let a balance build up over time so I could use the money to buy school books. When I attempted to cash out Google (which up until that time had no problem profiting off of my site) decided that I was part of a clickfraud ring and refused to pay out the money. There was no way to appeal. Honestly, to this day, I am still far less likely to use Google s…

That's eerie, the same thing happened to me.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#97

Post by ariwilson »

joering2 wrote: post #65
smartician wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's even worse is that they won't tell you what you allegedly did wrong. You can appeal, but you have to guess what you did wrong and provide evidence, but you can't even access your click data anymore since you're now locked out. It's like being in a relationship with a psychotic person.

Exactly and that's one of not-so-many reasons I'm so happy for GDPR to kick in! Basically a big fuck you to Google: "give me all the data you have on me or I will report you and you may be on the hook for 4% of your revenue".

google.com/takeout

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#98

Post by Retric »

paulpauper wrote: post #79
dangrossman wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the advertiser side of Google's services, I have a refund for "invalid activity" on almost every monthly statement going back nearly a decade. > You received a credit because we found invalid activity on your ads. What is it: Invalid activity refers to clicks and impressions that we suspect aren't the result of genuine customer interest. We don't charge you for invalid activity on your ads. Example: Invalid activi…

one possibility is the refund is done to create the illusion click fraud is being prevented . It's like a manager telling the owner only $100 was taken from the til but $150 was and he pockets the $50. Not that I'm saying google is like that but you have no way of auditing this figure.

I get your point but in your example the scam would be:

'It's like a manager telling the owner only $150 was taken from the til but $100 was and he pockets the $50. Not that I'm saying google is like that but you have no way of auditing this figure.'

But, in googles case it's more like: We charge you 1,000$ they say 100$ was fraud and refund you 100$ meanwhile 200$ was and they keep the 30% of 100$ distributing 70$ back for fraudulent clicks they don't really investigate.

Re: $11M settlement reached with Google regarding terminated AdSense accounts

#100

Post by dragonwriter »

justhw wrote: post #99

> Payments to each of the Class Representatives, not to exceed $5,000 each, as compensation for their active participation in the case on behalf of the Settlement Class; $11M payout for possibly thousands of publishers is pennies.

Class actions provide an opt out for class members which allows them to retain their own right to sue for that reason. Of course, if you lost money and weren't willing to take the cost/risk of a direct action suit to try to recover it before, I don't know why you'd spit in the face of someone successfully for securing you a mechanism for some.(if small) recovery now for basically zero cost now.
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