If I were in government, I would make Google liable for any ad they show. They took money for that ad, therefore they are responsible for the content of that ad.
Are any of the ads on social media not dodgy? I opened YT without adblock not so long ago and was immediately served ads for scam product from China. Facebook was also full of ads that were obvious scams.
My mom got served a virus from front page of Google. Living without adblock was always bad, nothing changed.
Twice I have tried to report this one, here’s their response:
Here’s what we found
We decided not to take this ad down. **We found that the ad doesn’t go against Google’s policies,** which prohibit certain content and practices that we believe to be harmful to users and the overall online ecosystem.
If it wasn’t for youtube and my 20 year old gmail account i wouldn’t be using anything from them
I’ve seen my niece and her friends get incredibly sexual ads on their YT before. Taught them both how to install adblock even on an iPhone and managed to make them not see that shit anymore. Mind you, my niece and her friends are FOURTEEN!
I felt like such an adult when they were getting excited that Fandom didn’t have ads anymore when I showed them what a DNS sinkhole is. This is what it means to be an adult. To use your wisdom to help the new generation navigate theirs.
That’s the best kind of praxis, because it will (hopefully) outlive you.
Is it really praxis tho? Like it is just being a good guardian to my niece and her friends. I get it to an extent that ‘ads are the price you pay for using a service for free’ but to what end? Google is a massive company and should vet the advertisements they allow a lot more.
The fact children are getting highly sexual ads is a failure on their part and I see blocking ads as a fair reprisal to them until they can sort themselves out. It’s my civil disobedience as a consumer. Like especially these days with how massively invasive ads have become.
If it were me in their place I could imagine your actions being impactful, and inspiring further action or thought. At that age I was very interested in going against the grain. It was a different time, but not too long ago. Really no one wants to see ads, for sure, so it’s still a win, even if the anti-surveillance ad message is not of interest, you’ve still helped get rid of not just the annoyance but the malicious vector of a grab bag of random liabilities - modern digital ads.
My view is that 15 years ago (maybe longer) “ads are the price you pay” was valid. They weren’t tracking everything you do… yet. They’ve gone too far and until they stop there’s no reason for you play by the rules either.
Should we try to coin the term:
“Beer’s Razor”
The purpose of a system is what it does…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_purpose_of_a_system_is_what_it_does
I just reported an ad that used a national newspaper name and logo to send you to a fake Amazon page that uses Amazon name and logo. Google’s response: “We decided not to take this ad down. We found that the ad doesn’t go against Google’s policies”
They don’t change… I had the same problem some 5 years ago. There was an ad for olive oil using the logo of a famous supermarket around here, and a fairly similar website to the supermarket one. I reported that ad 5 times, got the same “this ad does not violate Google’s policies” response each time. Until my mother clicked on it and was scammed out of her money.
I came to the conclusion that the only solution was to be done with google, I started using nextDNS in my entire network, changed all standard search for duckduckgo, and installed ad block all over.
I wish someone would make a website like a wall of shame, “ads we reported to Google and Google tough were fine”
Well yeah , I mean if you consider that Google’s policy is “Be Evil”, then everything’s fine.
Google made click money so its still up. It has nothing to do with AI, though thats a nice scapegoat: “ its not the AI! Look what it gave me as a response!”. Meanwhile the ad service AI doesnt give an f what this dude has to say because the money is better and this dude sounds like he pays for their AI so why would they care. He’s now a dissatisfied walking talking google ad.
Because that makes them money. Next question.
It’s for a church. NEXT.
(If you’ve never seen it)
Always a good read.
In that screenshot alone they had offers for enough space to handle 18 of the 20 people. But they just have to be an asshole about it.
I honestly always believed that it was a church busy body that was doing this. She probably has a small track record of resolving issues like this in the past and it just went straight to her head.
An all-time classic. You can hear the lead clanking in their bloodstream
Always gets a chuckle out of me
Correct, it’s always that answer for ‘why is company x doing’
That was my knee jerk reaction, but then I thought,“Hey, don’t be one of those people that only read the headlines and react to the click bait!” So I opened it and read it. Yep, should have just stuck with that first reaction and saved myself 30 seconds. Money. It’s always money.
There’s a suprisingly large number of people who I have had to tell that Google sells ad space. They’re a digital billboard company but with the ability to target and tailor that ad space to the people who’s eyes they want to put it in front of. People just don’t know or care or both.
Why wouldn’t they?
It’s not like they face any consequences for being accessory to fraud. Laws are for poor people.
Because the US refuses to regulate tech
But why won’t any other country do it either? Or are these ads only displaying to US IP addresses?
Because the US is aggressive towards countries that try. Also the companies are so large that they can exclude an entire country from their services.
A smaller country can take Facebook to court and might get a settlement but only a us court can truely punish them. With jail, breaking them up, law changes affecting their main customer base etc.
Exactly. Case in point: https://lemmy.zip/post/71167170
even if they did try to regulate this it wouldn’t go away unless the regulations were completely overhanded. Those ads aren’t ran by reputable buisness so thry probably wouldn’t be affected by getting banned anyways.
Because they’re blood soaked assholes who would be facing very uncomfortable consequences if there was justice in the world.
PSA: if you see a blood soaked asshole, refer them to a medical specialist as soon as possible.
This is why you should never try to remove hemorrhoids with a potato peeler.
Username checks out?
Two thoughts :
- This particular example of adversarial advertising by Google is directly targeting a flaw in a competitor’s (Apple) OS
- The author asks why Google aren’t using their AI tools to combat these, which is a fair question. Surely they are using AI, of course, but no chance in hell are they using the same Gemini the public gets. It’s going to be tailored to their end goals, not the public-facing model the author screenshotted.
Amazing how many people rather argue away the obvious using Hanlon’s Razor, than face reality. Let’s adhere to a much better reasoning tool, “allways follow the money!”
#1 money/greed
#2 ineffective governmentWith enough money and greed, you can make a very ineffective government.
I have personalized ads turned of in YouTube and it seems half the ads are for gambling as of late.
Wow. That really stinks for gambling addicts. It’s like they can’t get away from it. A lot of YouTube channels advertise gambling apps too.
If you’re seeing ads on YouTube, you’re doing it wrong.
I find this kind of response insufferable. It shifts the conversation from a systems critique to personal responsibility. You could have posted this in response the OP, and it would be equally on point and useless.
Critique the system all you like. The system doesn’t care. Call it ‘insufferable’ if you like, but ads are more insufferable. If there’s a way to solve the problem myself without waiting until some corporate overlord deigns to change anything, I’ll do that every time.
Your only point here though is “I’m so great, you suck” which frankly doesn’t help anyone. Maybe provide them some tips.
I’ll do that every time.
Not everyone will though. It’s not because they’re not as principled as you are, maybe they just lack the know-how or time.
Sharing the how and why would be more helpful - otherwise you’re just coming off as holier-than-thou. And no one wants to engage with that.
