back to article Google skewered in ad sting after Oracle-backed bods turn troll

An advocacy group funded in part by Oracle posed as a Russian internet troll farm to call attention to what it claims is Google's failure to police online political ad sales. To demonstrate shortcomings in Google's ad sales oversight, Campaign for Accountability (CfA) spent about $100 (~6,800 rubles) on political ads over the …

  1. John Lewis 4

    Don't be Evil ...

    ... unless there's money to be made out of it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'Unless there's money to be made out of it.'

      Evil? ... Everyday getting closer to 'Closing the Loop':

      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-30/google-and-mastercard-cut-a-secret-ad-deal-to-track-retail-sales

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Conflicted

    Google vs Oracle - I am conflicted - a plague on both their houses!

    1. m0rt

      Re: Conflicted

      I personally hope for Mutually Assured Destruction.

      Maybe it is time for a new cartoon strip in the form of Everybody Loves Eric Raymond, but instead of that fabled strip, we now have Ellison, Page, Nadella...oh screw it - lets put Stallman and Torvalds back into the house, too.

      I would click on those Russian State Sponsored Ads to give that creator revenue.

      (I want my 10% however).

    2. eldakka
      Joke

      Re: Conflicted

      Google vs Oracle - I am conflicted - a plague on both their houses!

      Maybe we could persuade them to get married? And have a Red Wedding?

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    FAIL

    "we have taken further appropriate action to upgrade our systems and processes"

    Oh, so you're not auto-filling Russian contact details anymore, is that it ?

    Because that really represents a massive change. Not that someone can't enter it manually, right ?

    And CfA is now a competitor to Google ? Really ? In what alternate universe is that possible ?

    Google PR spokesdrone trying to paint Google as a victim. FAIL.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have no respect for sting operations

    When you actively go looking for mistakes, it's easy to find somebody doing something wrong, whether in planned parenthood or right-wing congressmen. Proving that the mistakes are globally relevant is a whole different matter.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: When you actively go looking for mistakes,....

      ...it's easy to find somebody doing something wrong.

      Well the problem here is definitely with the looker, not the lookee. They're just an innocent law breaker, and probably a very very fine one. But looking for mistakes? That's a witch hunt if ever I saw one!

      1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

        Re: When you actively go looking for mistakes,....

        it's easy to find somebody doing something wrong

        "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

        (Attributed to Cardinal Richelieu but Wikiquotes says this is disputed)

        1. The Nazz

          Re: Richelieu

          You know, it never ceases to amaze me how such as Richelieu, Voltaire and many others had such a good command of the english language.

          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
            Devil

            Re: Richelieu

            The Nazz,

            French is a fictional language. If you sneak into France like a ninja, you'll find they're all speaking english, all the time. You can even go across on le ferry boat for le weekend, then jump on le train to Paris to buy le sandwich - and to burn off the calories there's le jogging.

            They only switch to french when they see someone foreign-looking walk into the room. The equivalent of walking into a country pub and everyone going silent.

            I've seen several documentaries about Dogtanion and the Muskahounds - and all the participants were speaking english the whole time. Proves it.

        2. disgruntled yank

          Re: When you actively go looking for mistakes,....

          Perhaps it was an impersonator (https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/5ed26246-33e9-450e-8eca-ddd0b4d8b86c)?

        3. The First Dave

          Re: When you actively go looking for mistakes,....

          I think the "take away" from that quote was that Cardinal Richelieu had way too much power, i.e. that he could legitimately hang anyone, if he really wanted to

          1. Rustbucket

            Re: When you actively go looking for mistakes,....

            The real "take away" is that if you're interviewed or arrested by the cops or the feds you should ask for a lawyer then STFU.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: When you actively go looking for mistakes,....

          "it's easy to find somebody doing something wrong

          "If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."

          And thus is the basis on which any Presidential investigation can continue on indefinitely with further purpose or outcome...

    2. Skwosh

      Re: I have no respect for sting operations

      "When you actively go looking for mistakes, it's easy to find somebody doing something wrong..."

      Oh – oh – I know this one – that's except in the case when it's people looking for security flaws in software and IoT etc. – then it's OK actively [to] go looking for mistakes. Yes?

      Why didn't Google just take the high ground and politely thank these people for finding a weakness in their system and thus giving them the opportunity to improve it?

      1. ratfox

        Re: I have no respect for sting operations

        Policing content, whether it's ads or a social network, is not quite the same thing as stamping out security flaws.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Joke

          Re: I have no respect for sting operations

          Ach, you mean I can no longer assert my bugs are protected by the Fist Amendment?

        2. flayman Bronze badge

          Re: I have no respect for sting operations

          You might like to think of this as a national security flaw.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Meanwhile Google/Alphabet top executives refused to appear in front of Congress....

    .... evidently they now believe they are a sovereign state, making their own rules.

    1. Jay Lenovo
      Unhappy

      Re: Meanwhile Google/Alphabet top executives refused to appear in front of Congress....

      Even Mark Zuckerberg made an appearance for the greater good.

      Googly folk I guess do no evil, speak no evil, admit no evil.

    2. eldakka

      Re: Meanwhile Google/Alphabet top executives refused to appear in front of Congress....

      .... evidently they now believe they are a sovereign state, making their own rules.

      In a free(*) country, the legislature and government cannot just order people around generally, and people are not required to follow said orders unless those orders have a legal basis behind them. There is no rule that says if congress 'orders' an appearance, you are required to attend, unless it is accompanied by a subpoena/warrant.

      Congress can issue such a subpoena, but unless they do so there is no rule that says you must attend. And so far such a subpoena has not been issued compelling attendance. So far congress has only made non-binding, non-compelling, non-legally enforceable requests for an appearance. Therefore Google/Alphabet hasn't broken any rules or made up any of their own with respect to this particular circumstance.

      I mean, it is impolite, and bad form to not attend. And could lead to legislative consequences down the road such as the snubbed/offended congresscritters giving bad publicity or influencing their votes on legislation impacting those no-shows.

      (*) assuming said country is indeed a free country.

  6. Dr Stephen Jones

    Oracle is a red herring - look what Google DID

    The sting used the IRA's own tax details to confirm that the ad buyer was who it said it was. Google accepted these.

    The sting used images and text already known to have originated with the IRA operation. Again, no problem for Google. No filters were tripped.

    In fact, Google said "Great stuff guys" and even chose a picture to make the ads more wonderful.

    Whenever Google PR says, "Look over there, Oracle!" you know they've really fscked up.

  7. RyokuMas
    FAIL

    "We’d encourage Oracle and its astroturf groups to work together with us to prevent real instances of foreign abuse – that’s how we work with other technology companies"

    ... however, we'll still knife you in the back if we don't like what you're doing.

  8. Bibbit

    Freudian slip?

    The "White Race race" conjures up all kinds of images, including the Berlin Olympics.

    1. Alistair
      Windows

      Re: Freudian slip?

      @Bibbit:

      Glad I'm not the only one that caught that. I'm hoping that it was a sly nudge on the whole 'we're radicalizing both ends of the entire population so they don't see what we're letting the wall street financial trolls get up to in the next 5 years'. But I suspect it was just a typo.

      1. James O'Shea

        Re: Freudian slip?

        They're El Reg. It may have started as a typo, but it stays 'cause they're El Reg.

  9. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    Joan Blandings sums it up

    "Miss Stellwagon says advertising makes people who can't afford it, buy things they don't want, with money they haven't got" ... and that was in 1948. Nothing much has changed has it?

  10. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Technicality

    Google censors what their customers see, not what they post. From outside of Google you see big piles of spam from Google mail servers and billions of Usenet spams from Google Groups servers.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Deja Vu All Over Again

    In years past, someone attempting to demonstrate how easy it was to fool G's search algorithms would set up half a dozen servers & quickly get top rankings for whatever target words he went after. G consistently ignored them.

    Looks like Oracle has done the same thing, but with the ads.

    Imperiousness is the word I believe we need.

  12. Nick Kew

    Identity Theft

    A week ago it was the Democrats in Michigan. Now it's a private US group linked to Oracle. Who next?

    Russia must be guilty of something - any state does bad things. But when they're the world's prime bogeyman, it becomes impossible to pick out the true stories from the fake news, and those who stand accused from those who have stolen their identity.

    And we already knew that western TLAs routinely frame those nations on which they want to put pressure.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So no so much fake news, as fake ads ?

    Seems there really is no downside to adblockers ....

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