Google search still continues to promote stalkerware despite the massive ban.
Stalkerware applications are still thriving, partly because of Google search. If a user suspects they are being tracked using their devices, it is possible that Google's search ads made it possible.
Stalkerware companies are easily getting around the tech giant's ad restrictions on spyware, revealing themselves with a simple search for products to keep track of a partner's phone or to review other people's text messages.
Google's stalking app advertising standards plainly state that spyware and other surveillance devices are specifically prohibited from advertising in search results. Although this policy exempts apps that help parents track kids or employers track gadgets issued by their company.
Getting Around Google's Ban
Google says it works to find products that hide what they are really for, but Jan Penfrat, the senior policy advisor at European Digital Rights, told MIT Tech Review that the tech giant's ad screening is done with old algorithms that are "pretty easy to get around."
After MIT brought the offensive ads to Google for review, the company said it had taken them down. However, a simple search shows that there are still a lot of ads for stalkerware at the top of the search results.
In addition, when Gizmodo conducted the search, it was able to prove that a simple search for phrases such as "app to see spouse's text messages" or "see who your girlfriend is texting" still promotes multiple advertisements for apps that expressly offer remote access to SMS and texts.
Even though the manufacturers of some programs, such as mSpy, state on their websites that the apps are designed for parents to use so they can keep tabs on their children, Google's search ads for those products make it abundantly clear that they may also be used to monitor the phones of other people.
Stalkerware on Google Search
Stalkerware, which is also called spyware, is software that can be used to secretly track a person's location, phone calls, private messages, web searches, and keystrokes. Some of these apps are free, but most of them cost money. They usually run in the background of a phone without being noticed, or they pretend to be calculators, calendars, or other apps that maintain the system.
In August 2020, Google stopped running ads for stalkerware. The Google search ads policy states that the updated policy will make it illegal to promote products or services that are marketed or targeted with the specific goal of tracking or monitoring another person or their activities without their permission. This category includes software used to spy on intimate partners, but Google still lets ads for private investigators and products or services used to spy on children.
As reported by MIT Technology Review, Jan Penfrat, a senior policy advisor at European Digital Rights, says that the things companies like Google do to check the ads they run on their networks are usually not very thorough. Penfrat stated that the screening systems are often run by algorithms and that they don't work very well.
It is against the law to put stalkerware on an adult's phone without their permission, but it is legal to sell these types of apps. Even though many websites say that their software is only for legal purposes, a few people have been convicted of installing spyware on the devices of adults who didn't know it was there.
