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Google To Nix All Tech Support Provider Ads (itnews.com.au)
Google will restrict advertisements placed by third-party technical support providers, in an effort to stem a rising tide of abuse and fraud by scammers who offer to fix non-existent problems on consumers' computers. Report says: The restriction for tech support ads comes after Google collaborated with law enforcement and government agencies to address abuse in the area, the company's director of public policy David Graff wrote. All ads for technical support will be restricted worldwide, even for legitimate providers, Graff said. Google's banned such ads because the company finds it increasingly difficult to tell scammers from legitimate providers, as the fraudulent activity happens away from the company's platform.
So they're blocking Windows and Mac support ads while keeping the "run to the cloud" cloud-migration partner ads? Seems like good business sense...
Here's hoping they nix the "You need updated 32/64-bit Windows Drivers" messages that keep overlaying YouTube videos, too. I don't even own a Windows computer.
the phone calls from "Mictosoft Tech Support" on my cell phone,
I don't have anything other than some old Xbox running old versions of XBMC from Microsoft in my house.
The only entertainment I get is asking them, when they call, if it's Monsoon season yet.
Is this how Big Tech solves insoluble problems, by tossing the whole bathtub out the second story window and then when challenged about it asking, "what problem?"
They'll "Fix" this problem.
Then either offer a special verified IT support program, which unfortunately has some overhead and will cost more to place such an ad (Premium Premium ads) :P
or you'll hear that google is offering to resolve IT problems and has their own outsourced IT company they advertise
"Language is a virus from outer space." William S. Burroughs.
Laurie Anderson's take on it.
I don't know about you, but my grandmother can't fix her own computer to save her own life. She NEEDS a tech support company. Are we really going to let some dipshit apples spoil the whole bunch for a giant swath of the public who NEEDS this kind of shit to even make Excel add the total of a column for them? We shouldn't. We should just tell people what to look for in a scammer. IE someone who calls you first about problems with your computer you didn't know you had. Also, someone claiming to be from 'Windows technical support' or anyone claiming to know shit about your computer, at all, preemptively. Just say no! teach anyone who owns a computer that, and you've instantly made it less profitable to be a scammer, and also potentially created tens of thousands of more hilarious youtube videos of people leading scammers on until they meet their inevitably obnoxious conclusion that you aren't falling for it. Sell Ads on THAT.
Speak for yourself.
If they purport to have AI sufficiently intelligent to drive cars, can't it be use to discern scams? Any time Google (or any company which purports "to almost" have working scalable AI) complains that it can't make a simple decision rapidly and it's the kind of decision that millions of people make every day, it should give them and everyone else a pause.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I had an experience a few months ago where I typed in "Netgear support" and the first hit I got was an ad for some firm that claimed it could fix routers. At the time, it was not clear that it wasn't Netgear support, and they claimed to be Netgear, both in the ad and on the phone. It was only until they asked for $100, for support on a brand new router, that I realized they weren't. I immediately terminated the call.
They called back, again claiming they were "Netgear" (I had given them a callback number). I was rather upset that Google provided their ad result as the first item for Netgear. They were running a scam. I eventually got to real Netgear support, and they helped me with my problem.
"the company finds it increasingly difficult to tell scammers from legitimate providers"
A very widespread problem in many areas besides tech support, e.g., banking/financial services.
Wells Fargo for example. Legitimate business or scammer?
That's why nobody uses Chrome on Android.
Caniuse.com's usage table disagrees with that claim.
Chrome for Android: 32.65%
Firefox for Android: 0.18%
Nor is Firefox beating other mobile browsers.
Safari for iOS (11.2 and 11.4): 8.55%
Opera Mini (more remote desktop than browser): 2.29%
IE Mobile (10, 11, and Edge): 0.22%
Back when I co-owned an IT service business our most prominent calls were residential calls resolving issues created by Google enabling scammers to bilk elderly people out of money who were searching for support for D-Link support, Microsoft support, Apple support, etc., etc.. You name it, there's a fake support site for it.
Every few months I would feedback Google's scam ads and they never did anything about them. Why? Because Googling has happily and knowingly enabling scam artists.
We had one senior on a fixed income that was "Paying Microsoft" $500 a month because she used Google to find them to help her with an email problem and they alleged she needed to pay them to keep her computer safe from viruses. Sickening. I don't know why Google wasn't hanged for this behaviour ages ago, the first time they said they were going to fix this problem. I'm sure I commented on a number of these same articles in the past on Slashdot.
Great! Now they should also remove ads for all of the other categories experiencing an influx of scammers... which are like... everything under the sun!
Want a depressing example? Look up "florist scam google maps". They are doing nothing about it.
So, tech support providers have become like mechanics. They fix stuff that isn't broken, and break stuff to fix it later.
(T>t && O(n)--) == sqrt(666)
DMCA is a USA thing
And article 6 of the Copyright Directive 2001 is an analogous EU thing.