Your account poses a significant risk!
Posted on July 15, 2009 by Philip Newman
On Saturday the 11th of July 2009 (The day of the YouTube gathering), Google decided that “my account posed a significant risk to their advertises”.
They then suspend my AdSense account and one of my main sources of income without any other reason than the one given above.
This has started getting me thinking about how many services we use that are run by Google. Just about everything I use is Google maybe it’s time to find some reliable alternatives or create my own.
Unfortunately after requesting they check their details the reply was exactly the same. A pre-fabricated response designed to give you no information at all. It wasn’t even sent from a real person.
“Thank you for providing us with additional information. However, after thoroughly reviewing your account data and taking your feedback into consideration, we have re-confirmed that your account poses a significant risk to our advertisers. For this reason, we are unable to reinstate your account. Thank you for your understanding.”
I’m not sure who writes their emails but there is nothing to understand about anything about being a significant risk.
This is much like a Police Officer taking your drivers licence away because you are “at significant risk from other drivers” and not giving you any other explanation to why or what is happening.
Had Google advised me something was not right it wouldn’t have taken much to re-code my site to remove the risk.
It seems like too much of a coincidence that all this would happen the same week as I changed my account from cheque to automatic payment. Google though their finance companies deposited $0.22 into my account so I could verify that my bank works.
Is this the start of something bigger? Has Google started to weed out the low income earners in favour of the corporate websites that generate millions of views?
I’ve sent these questions to Annie Baxter the Australian and New Zealand representatives and will update you on their responses when they arrive.
If you live in New Zealand and have had the same thing happen to you please get in contact I’m trying to form a picture of what is going on.
Other posts in Uncategorized.
Comments (9)
They did the exact same thing to me after some political opponents complained to them. They canceled my account with zero recourse or the ability to refute the claims.
Request a copy of all information they hold on you under the Privacy Act. Normally you’ll get a real person responding as they have to release the information by law. Ask for anything about you and internal notes that mention or relate to you.
This has happeded to me as well. It was right when I decided i was earning enough to change from cheque to direct credit. A few days after the deposit into my bank my account was closed. Google has become so automated.
Have you thought about using AdBright? They let you choose who advertises on your website.
They have done it to larger companies as well. I run about 15 websites and they all had google ads on them. Followed all the TOS and then I had my account suspended and no one would tell me why. Google should be helping small websites with security issues if they know about them.
… And the worst thing is … because Google is so big and your just a small enterprise. You can do nothing about their decision.
Thanks for everyones comments … I’ve still got to hear from Annie Baxter about what will happen to my YouTube account. I’m still waiting for her email.
I think most people would be angry if they had an income removed. As for being a YouTube partner you’ll probably be even more gutted now as none of your videos will make any money. I wish you the best of luck with your website hand hopefully you will make something work.
Don’t think I would have expected this from a Google. At least they could have given you a “Why?”