Google Adsense allows companies and content producers to advertise and generate revenue on Web sites and youtube videos. But, did the search engine giant steal from its customers and video producers?
A firestorm of controversy has erupted over allegations made by a person who says he was a Google employee. The company quickly denied the allegations, saying they did not engage in unscrupulous behavior.
According to the source, Google ranked each content producer by a color code, indicating how much the company earned each month.
The Google Whistleblower published his case online stating "We were told to go and look into the publishers accounts, and if any publisher had accumulated earnings exceeding $5000 and was near a payout or in the process of a payout, we were to ban the account right away and reverse the earnings back."
According to the charges, the company maintained a level system from 2009 to 2012 but may be still operating it to this day.
While some advertisers stayed within the rules and were banned, others violated the terms of service and were retained. If proven true, this revelation shows that google was selectivly enfocing their policies on an yet to be disclosed bias to the content creators.
Google answered the charges with simultaneous press releases, reading "This description of our AdSense policy enforcement process is a complete fiction. The color-coding and 'extreme quality control' programs the author describes don't exist."
Although the allegations, made by an anonymous poster, were not backed up by proof, it could spell trouble for the company. In the last few years, Google services have become far less transparent than they used to be, errecting a wall of silence to inquires of adsence thefts.
It is not yet known just how many youtube accounts have been affected by this alleged color coding system and how much money Google allegedly stole from their partners.
Since the denial by Google, the Whistleblower stated they have hard proof to back up their allegations, but will only reveal it during a class action lawsuit.
http://pastebin.com/qh6Tta3h
favoritism-theft-allegations-7000028913
http://www.zdnet.com/adsense-leak-controversy-heats-up-as-google-denies-/
http://www.cnet.com/news/google-rebuffs-claim-of-adsense-fraud/
http://techcrunch.com/2014/04/29/adsense-whistleblower/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/30/google_denies_adsense_theft_allegations_pastebin
