How much does Google know? My thoughts…probably more than you want them to.

An fellow Google user was using the GoogleTalk application while chatting with a friend. This user has his own personal website that contains ads provided by Google. (as does mine) During the chat, the user jokingly prompted his friend to click on his ads while he was viewing some picture of his new baby. It is against the Google AdSense terms of service (TOS) to solicit clicks in any form, so the user clearly violated (admittedly) the TOS. The part that threw up a red flag was the e-mail from Google the user received the next day. This is an excerpt from the chat and the e-mail message:

1:11 PM my buddy: oh csection yeah that takes a while, what was the weight?

me: http://spanglenuts.blogspot.com/

there are some pics

8lbs 12.5 ounces

1:12 PM my buddy: yeah thats a good size

1:14 PM me: Ya, he’s cute.

1:15 PM my buddy: yeah very nice i’m lokking at the pics now

me: you can feel free to click on some ads.

The following day(today), less than 24 hours later, I received an email about my Google Adsense Account Status. Here is the email. In bold are the highlights…

#######################################################

Hello Google User (name removed for privacy),

It has come to our attention that invalid clicks have been generated on
the Google ads on your site(s). In the future, we may adjust your
payment for any days during which invalid clicks occurred in order to
properly credit advertisers for any invalid activity.

As a reminder, any method of generating invalid clicks is strictly
prohibited. Invalid clicks include but are not limited to any clicks
that are generated through the use of robots, automated clicking tools,
manual clicks by a publisher on the publisher’s own web pages, or a
publisher encouraging others to click on his ads.

Looks to me like Google tracks what GoogleTalk users are chatting about. This conversation must have thrown up a red-flag.

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