Google: Another AdSense Allegation
May 22, 2014
These allegations about Google’s AdSense surface once in a while. I read “Google Hit by Class Action Lawsuit over Claimed AdSense Fraud.” According to the write up:
The legal action…claims that Google knowingly canceled the AdSense accounts of customers so that it wouldn’t have to pay out any revenues from internet users’ clicks.
The story then hooks this most recent allegation with an earlier allegation made by a former Googler. The article states:
The lawsuit mirrors allegations made online in April by a claimed former employee of Google who asserted that the Chocolate Factory has a huge system in place to systematically defraud AdSense users. The posting claims that the program has been in place since 2009 and also involved monkeying about with Google analytics data.
My thought is that Google does no evil. Assuming this is true, how can a series of algorithms behave in a punitive manner. If one doubts the “do no evil” assumption, then algorithms are performing actions that could be evil. I don’t want to follow this chain of reasoning because the notion that a large corporation would have a flaw is anathemic to my world view.
I wonder how this class action matter will play out. My hunch is that parties to the matter will have to have money to try to prevail. How will parties involved in this matter generate money? Well, there’s always AdSense.
Stephen E Arnold, May 22, 2014
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