Google Ads has indefinitely blocked my ad campaigns. I have a theory why

I've created an ad campaign that is intended to direct viewers to a blog I started about a technology consultancy I am considering starting in the Cincinnati area.

https://loticsystems.blogspot.com

My mistake may have been to start writing about some goals I have with the company. Namely standing up for progressive movements such as LGBTQ and BLM.

The ad was running fine, with a click rate of a little less than 1%. Then the other day I saw a banner across the top of the Google Ads campaign page that said the campaign was being blocked due to a "Subverting Systems policy".

I clicked the "Contact Us" link, which required me to provide contact details (including address). After I provided that information I received an email that stated that they're currently overwhelmed and that due to the COVID pandemic there's no guarantee they'll be able to respond in a timely manner.

I've been involved in technology for about 20 years professionally, so I can absolutely guarantee there is nothing fishy going on from the technical side of the equation. Unless I'm not allowed to direct an ad to my blog, but who needs personally identifiable information to rectify something like that? In the meantime it dawned on me that I really don't know the "checks and balances" that Google has in place to ensure customer privacy and/or safety. I don't know how "freely available" information within their systems is to the Google Ads team, and since they definitely appear they're going to be taking their time to actually address the issue my fear really at this point is that one day they'll just drop the case once my contact info has been distributed to whoever is trying to obtain it.

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS...

5 points | by unexaminedlife 1056 days ago

2 comments

  • unexaminedlife 1056 days ago
    CONTINUED...

    Granted, businesses in general (location, etc) is available to the public, but owners of companies don't typically need to reveal their identities and/or contact info or address to the general public. Me providing my contact info through this form on the Google Ads website (I would think) almost guarantees that my contact info has now been distributed to whoever setup the issue.

    I'm not trying to create a FUD story, I'm really just trying to write enough of the info (and my concerns) here so that if anyone from Google happens to read this they could look into the policies and procedures on the Google Ads side in order to look into the possibility of malicious intent on the part of internal users or a statistically significant uptick in the number of cases coming through like this. Technology has obviously become quite a politicized issue these days so I personally wouldn't rule out the idea that people within these companies with differing views could potentially leverage the power wielded by Google's systems in order to "take matters into their own hands" by blocking ads that they would prefer for Google NOT to distribute to its end users.

    Personal details (by default) are likely blocked from customer service reps, but I'd be interested to know if you all (Google internally) are seeing an uptrend in unexplainable reports of the type I received so that lower level employees can obtain personally identifiable information of people they disagree with, or simply to block ads indefinitely from being distributed across Google's vast advertising network?

  • unexaminedlife 1056 days ago
    TBH I'm really not mad that I'm blocked. The real concern here is whether or not personally identifiable info (due to the craziness in the US these days) was really critical to resolving whatever issue they think they detected from my end.

    EDIT: Also I should mention, the implications are probably vast. I'm a tiny speck compared to (for example) identifying political organizers, etc...