[Google confirmed to me that the facts as laid out below are true. They understand that the Bowman's Brigade business does NOT sell firearms, but they feel that the bulk food, survival gear, and replacement parts (like weapon sights) are close enough to firearm sales to, ah, trigger that prohibition. --Declan] --- Date: Mon, 11 Mar 2002 16:12:29 -0500 From: Todd <tmzat_private> To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Subject: Google Refuses Business from Gun and Knife Advertisers -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Declan, First off, thanks for all the excellent reporting over the years, as well as the politech list. I've enjoyed both immensely. Here's an interesting story about a problem that Bowman's Brigade (which appears to sell hunting/survival supplies) reports having with Google and their adwords program. Obviously, it's Google's prerogative to allow any ads they want, but it's also good to know about these policies when using their service. I have not yet verified this by contacting Google at their adwords-supportat_private address, but I plan to do so momentarily. I've looked at the "Terms and Conditions" page for any reference to what might be prohibited. All I see is: "4. Spam and Other Prohibited Uses. You agree not to use the Google Web Site or Partner Sites to impression or click SPAM the Advertisements nor to advertise substances, services, products or materials that are illegal or violate Google's Ad Policy, as it may be revised from time to time. Ads that link to websites with substantially similar content may not be targeted to same sets of keywords. Further you shall not submit Advertisements where you are an affiliate partner to the web site targeted in such Advertisement, and you do not provide content at such web site that is substantially reflective of the Target(s) being used through the AdWords Program. Violation of the above policies will have strict negative consequences. We will immediately and permanently terminate your AdWords Program account. In addition, you may be subject to state and federal penalties and other legal consequences under applicable law and Google may, at its option, assist appropriate authorities in imposing such penalties or take legal action against you." There's no mention of weapons, guns, knives, or firearms. They do reference "Google's Ad Policy" but there is no link to this document and a quick search, on Google, of course, produced nothing relevant. The Bowman's Brigade side of the story is at the following URL, part of which is included for your convenience. http://www.bowmansbrigade.com/google1.htm On March 7, 2002 Bowman's Brigade placed the following three paid ads on the Google search engine. They are listed in exact order with the responses from Google March 8, 2002 - Their Response to this ad: We are not able to run the following ad(s) in Ad Group #1, of Campaign #1 you have created using the Google AdWords Select Advertising Program: Thank you for advertising on Google. At this time, we are not running ads for sites that sell pistol barrels or gun parts. We review ads on a case-by-case basis and reserve the right to not run certain ads, or certain categories of ads. Due to our current ads policy, we are unable to run your ad on Google. Google believes strongly in freedom of expression and therefore offers broad access to content across the web without censoring results. At the same time, we reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site, as noted in our advertising terms and conditions. Please note that the decisions we make concerning advertising in no way affect the search results we deliver. We will continue to show search results for equipment and supplies and related products. Please feel free to email us at adwords-supportat_private if you have further questions or concerns. Sincerely, The Google AdWords Team [...] - -- Todd If laws worked, there would be no crime. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl. iD8DBQE8jR29uv+09NZUB1oRAlIZAKCrq1m5z0to+Mq4tZ9I/dU4+NcohACZAWIT 5Y3kvLWKjnJxSrBTnRqXeNQ= =ta4c -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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