Google: I Promise to Do Better. No, Really, Really Better This Time

June 27, 2023

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

The UK online publication The Register made available this article: “Google Accused of Urging Android Devs to Mislabel Apps to Get Forbidden Kids Ad Data.” The write up is not about TikTok. The subject is Google and an interesting alleged action by the online advertising company.

The high school science club member who pranked the principal says when caught: “Listen to me, Mr. Principal. I promise I won’t make that mistake again. Honest. Cross my heart and hope to die. Boy scout’s honor. No, really. Never, ever, again.” The illustration was generated by the plagiarism-free MidJourney.

The write up states as “actual factual” behavior by the company:

The complaint says that both Google and app developers creating DFF apps stood to gain by not applying the strict “intended for children” label. And it claims that Google incentivized this mislabeling by promising developers more advertising revenue for mixed-audience apps.

The idea is that intentionally assigned metadata made it possible for Google to acquire information about a child’s online activity.

My initial reaction was, “What’s new? Google says one thing and then demonstrates it adolescent sense of cleverness via a workaround?

After a conversation with my team, I formulated a different hypothesis; specifically, Google has institutionalized mechanisms to make it possible for the company’s actual behavior to be whatever the company wants its behavior to be.

One can hope this was a one-time glitch. My “different hypothesis” points to a cultural and structural policy to make it possible for the company to do what’s necessary to achieve its objective.

Stephen E Arnold, June 27, 2023

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Google, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.