By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/08/2026It could automatically resolve these mismatches by sending an email to the merchant's verified email address that says, "Hey, are you buying an ad with a new URL? If so, just reply to this email." 34/ 1402
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/08/2026I don't know why Google doesn't do this. Maybe they make huge sums from these scam ads and they don't want to forego the revenue. Or maybe they just don't care. Whichever it is, there's real consequences for this negligence by the internet's absentee landlord. 35/ 2616
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 05/08/2026Take abortions: fake abortion clinics - where pregnant women are bullied or tricked out of the abortions they're seeking - buy Google ads against the names of *real* abortion clinics. Google makes millions sending abortion-seekers to fake abortion providers: pluralistic.net/2023/06/15/p... 36/pluralistic.netPluralistic: Google makes millions on paid abortion disinformation (15 June 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow 15512
Ohai @bop.bsky.social · 06/08/2026In ad tech it's called "conquesting". The idea is that e.g. Pepsi would buy ads on searches for Coke to poach customers (without the impersonation), this is just the scammy logical conclusion when a company is too cheap to implement guardrails on the practice 100
