Macro - 6:56 pm on Dec 6, 2004 (gmt 0)

EFV, I don't think anyone's arguing that it should be disclosed.

I agree that it's scary what info Google has. They know things about your site that you'll never know. It's not disputed that they have the means to put their stats PhDs to good use. Do they do it? Yes, we've seen evidence. In threads of Adsense bans it often turned out that there was in fact a violation of TOS, even if inadvertent. Occasionally there is a case where the poster never accepts that he was at fault in any way. This is understandable as it's possible the fraudulent clicks happened outside of his knowledge (even by an advertiser depleting a competitor's ad budget). The fact that Google doesn't shed any light on the reasons does make it harder to accept the ban if you believe you've done no wrong. But, I can't see a logic in Google banning people at random when they have sophisticated tools on which to base the bans.

The general fear about getting the dreaded "fraudulent click email" seems to have abated substantially since the early days.