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AdSense IP tracking when using dial-up?

Clicking ads using different IP address each time

         

UKFord

3:00 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



I warned someone today that they aren't helping the site by clicking an ad everytime they dial up a connection, as adsense will kick us off for unvalid clicks.

Was I right to do so, given that it will be a different IP, everytime he logs on? How does Google know it's the same person, if he's a different IP each time?

TheNige

3:20 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



they could just make a generalization about the IP subnet that the user is on. They could also get the user's browser-type when they click...so if that same browser type kept clicking from the same subnet over a period of time they could think it was fraud clicks.

Clark

3:23 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



I doubt google would be able to tell from the IP. If the guy has the google toolbar he could be caught.

But even if he doesn't use the toolbar, it is a practice I would highly discourage. You never know what ideas they could come up with to detect.

I wonder if they set a cookie through javascript or use some other tracking device by comparing logs? Experts at statistics can pull up data and find amazing patterns...

401khelp

3:34 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Was I right to do so

It doesn't matter whether Google would catch it or not, you did what was ethically correct -- stopping dishonest behavior.

whizkiddo

7:09 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



thats rite, at some point stop thinking about whther they will b able to catch u or not. Someone pays for those clicks and if it doesnt work they r going to pull out. ppl must understand when they do fraud that they are essentially killing the goose that lays the golden eggs just to get an extra egg for a day.

fraud in the long term harms the publisher most. think about it the advertiser has money to spend, he will always find some other avenue with better or same ROI. Google might scrap adsense and go in for just adwords (not possible , but probable if fraud is very high which hasnt happened till yet maybe bcz they r very paranoid about fraud or maybe bcz we havent done anything like that). thats leaves us the publishers in the dry looking for other sources of revenue.

having said that G must understand that most publishers realise this and also wish to avoid , help detect fraud clicks. It burns my heart each time another publisher is pulled out of the program while they scream it wasnt me. I think most publishers have the sense of not clicking on their ads and instead of punishing us , G should try and work with us. We do wish to help :(

zoltan

7:50 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Noone mentioned the cookies here... I bet that google is putting nice cookies on your computer...

the_nerd

8:20 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



don't they have every right on earth to make sure nobody cheats on them?

Since I sell Adsense AND buy Adwords, I'm pretty happy they do.

jackti

10:22 am on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



i think it's more complicated than just comparing IPs or cookies alone, they are sure to be collecting browser type info too, and even though many people use browsers that identify as Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1), you'll have a bunch of unique ones, with tracking numbers....

UKFord

1:18 pm on Oct 22, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



You seem to get two cookies. One that ends when the session is over, the other stays in your PC.