Misleading Malware and Ads Making Up a Bulk of Blocked Google Ads

By Aarti Dhapte , 26 April, 2023

Cyber warfare takes many forms. They take it from server and network attacks to illusory advertising hiding malicious software behind links and banners.

According to the ad safety report of Google, the company has blocked 1.4 billion of these ads manufactured to fly under the radar of ad review policies. Also, 5.2 billion inappropriate and bad ads were removed by Google, with 1.8 billion more in 2021. But other types of blocked ads that go against the company policies are much lower in volume.

As per the latest system, Google also listed third-party ads using specific trademarks. Even if the said usage is supposed to be legal in general, trademark owners can also file complaints and request the takedowns of the related searches. These bad ads amounted to 11 percent of the total blocked ads.

Then comes the advertisements, which are taken down to comply with legal requirements in some states and countries, and the advertisements that use sensitive user data as a target.

As per the reports, many internet companies have also started evaluating their ad business. All these began considering the European Union working to check platform providers' influence on their residents' online experience. If we take the example of Google, it launched a transparency centre with which individual users can explore a database containing all campaigns rolled out by certified advertisers. On the other hand, Meta plans to ban all political ads and campaigns booked on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, as per the reports.