This is Google’s attempt to protect users in important times during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have been closely watching the behaviour of advertisers in order to protect users from ads that seek profits in times of crisis today,” wrote Scott Spencer, Vice President of Google for privacy and security ad in his blog as quoted CNET. “As the situation evolved, we saw a sharp spike in fake advertising for products in demand such as face masks,” he added. It was explained that these advertisements had promoted products that were listed significantly at prices above the market, then also gave incorrect information about the quality of the product to deceive people into making a purchase or being placed by a merchant who had never fulfilled an order. Google says it has a COVID-19 task force that creates new detection technology to help stop unscrupulous elements. The company has also blocked and removed tens of millions of advertisements related to the Coronavirus in recent months because it has carried out customer policies such as product pricing and misleading information. On the publisher side, Google has also pulled the plug in more than 1.2 million accounts and removed the ads of more than 21 million website pages from its publisher network for violating Google’s policies. This figure is higher compared to the year 2018 where there were 2.3 billion bad ads that were blocked by Google. Because its ability to detect trends and patterns among scammers has increased, the company noted, it has been able to respond with new technology designed to stop threatening threats. Google said it also blocked more than 35 million phishing ads last year.
