"Google is failing to enforce its own ban on ads for stalkerware", 12 May 2022

Google Search displays advertisements for stalkerware services that boast real-time monitoring of romantic partners and spouses, despite the company’s self-imposed ban on such ads. 

According to research by mobile security firm Certo Software and confirmed by MIT Technology Review, Google Search queries related to tracking partners such as a wife or girlfriend commonly return ads for software and services that explicitly offer to spy on other individuals.

Google banned ads promoting stalkerware in August 2020... [A]lthough Google still allows advertisements promoting private investigators and child-monitoring products or services. 

The companies behind stalkerware services buy ads on Google against search results such as “spy app cheater,” “read wife’s texts app” and “read girlfriend’s texts app.”  

A spokesperson for Google said: “We do not allow ads promoting spyware for partner surveillance. We’ve reviewed the ads in question and are removing those that violate our policy.” Since MIT Technology Review brought the ads to Google’s attention, the company has removed some but not all of them from its search results.

In a cruel irony, Google’s current policies actually penalize anti-spyware companies.

The things companies like Google do to screen the ads they run on their networks tend to be superficial, says Jan Penfrat, senior policy advisor at European Digital Rights.