Ok so I have now receieved a response to my ‘appeal’ (Its in quotes for good reason…) and heres the response verbatim: -

“Hello Paul,
Thank you for your appeal.
After receiving your response, we re-reviewed your account data thoroughly. We have reconfirmed that invalid clicks were generated on the ads on your site in violation of our Terms and Conditions and programme policies.
https://www.google.com/adsense/terms
https://www.google.com/adsense/policies
We have implemented these policies to help ensure the effectiveness of Google ads for our publishers as well as our advertisers. According to our policy on this matter, we are unable to reinstate you into the programme. Please bear in mind that subsequent or duplicate appeals may not be considered and you may not receive any further communication from us.
We appreciate your understanding.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team”

So….. I can now safely tell you what i really think….

The original email i recieved was obvioulsy autogenerated by their system after I had tripped it through a detection of multiple invalid clicks. Despite asking for confirmation of which site and what clicks I have been banned… They have absolutely no burden of proof on them to prove anything. I HAVE NEVER clicked on my own ads and like the majority of adsense publishers i am powerless to prevent a clickbombing attack (Even those of us with some protection based on IP cant stop a proxy hopping clickbot)

“In the event the Agreement is terminated, Google shall pay Your earned balance to You within approximately ninety (90) days after the end of the calendar month in which the Agreement is terminated by You (following Google’s receipt of Your written request, including by email, to terminate the Agreement) or by Google. In no event, however, shall Google make payments for any earned balance less than $10. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Google shall not be liable for any payment based on: (a) any amounts which result from invalid queries, invalid Referral Events, or invalid clicks or impressions on Ads generated by any person, bot, automated program or similar device, as reasonably determined by Google, including without limitation through any clicks or impressions (i) originating from Your IP addresses or computers under Your control, (ii) solicited by payment of money, false representation, or request for end users to click on Ads, or (iii) solicited by payment of money, false representation, or any illegal or otherwise invalid request for end users to complete Referral Events; (b) Ads or Referral Buttons delivered to end users whose browsers have JavaScript disabled; (c) Ads benefiting charitable organizations and other placeholder or transparent Ads that Google may deliver; (d) Google advertisements for its own products and/or services (excluding payments based on completed Referral Events); or (e) clicks co-mingled with a significant number of invalid clicks described in (a) above, or as a result of any breach of this Agreement by You for any applicable pay period. Google reserves the right to withhold payment or charge back Your account due to any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by You, pending Google’s reasonable investigation of any of the foregoing or any breach of this Agreement by You, or in the event that an advertiser whose Ads are displayed in connection with Your Site(s) defaults on payment for such Ads to Google. In addition, if You are past due on any payment to Google in connection with any Google program (including without limitation the Google AdWords program), Google reserves the right to withhold payment until all outstanding payments have been made or to offset amounts owed to You in connection with the Program by amounts owed by You to Google”

Bits to note in here are that they say that they will only pay for valid clicks… fair enough so would I, however they have taken the entire balance of my account which inplies that all my clicks were invalid…. This is simple theft in my opinion, they have not proven any invalid clicks to me directly and I have never had any reason to think that I have been targetted by someone malicious before.

So it seems that Google can terminate you and withold your money without having to give any valid proof of wrongdoing and that all of us are at the mercy of Googles computerised detection system. It seems that even if you provide them with all your stats and information about your account all it takes is someone with a evil streak and a twitchy mouse clicking finger to rob you of your rightul earnings.

I shall be less friendly towards the Big G as a result and im afraid that the content eminating from me in their index will now be less subtle till I regain what I have lost…

Just to say it for the last time I HAVE NEVER CLICKED ON MY OWN ADS and I HAVE NO REASON TO BELIEVE ANYONE HAS ANY REASON TO WRONGLY CLICK ON MY ADS EITHER.

Ps Matt…. You asked on Threadwatch who you will be tackling next? The answer is your unlikely to be winning in the next episode….

Its ok… lesson learnt - morals reduced…. build pending…..

This entry was posted on Monday, September 11th, 2006 at 2:53 pm and is filed under Adsense, Google, PPC, Personal, SEOidiot Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.