I just received this email from my adword rep:
<snip>
Anyone else receive this?
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 3:53 pm (utc) on May 21, 2006]
[edit reason] please - no email posted on WebmasterWorld - please review tos - [/edit]
the bottom line if the judge approves it:
30 mil cash to the lawyers
60 mil in credits to advertisers
There are many who don't believe this is anywhere close to being an equitable resolution, just a freebie to google.
But looks like its worth nothing unless otherwise you have spent a lot on AdWords.
Objections have to be notified in writing by post, whereas this notice has been sent by email. Doesn't seem right as I want to object on the basis the settlement is going to cost me in the long term as Google will have to recoup losses via cuts in Adsense commissions. I'd like to know where they got my email address and what they are going to do to compensate me for the time involved in reading it.
<edit>I've been sent two - to different addresses</edit>
If this is a real 'legal notice' then I, for one, am going to do my best to cause trouble. $30 million for the class counsel?! That's enough to make me object in itself.
So lets say you spent $100K on Adwords how much would you get from this settlement?
I imagine it won't be more than $60 if your lucky.
What's the average click fraud. Probably around 1% that means that your effectively losing $940 by accepting this, even at 0.5% your still losing $440.
Quite frankly most advertisers don't care about click fraud in Google because there is nothing they can do about it and you factor the fraud into your click price.
The phishing stuff is always weird. How come they got my email addresses? Why couldn't Google just send me the mail, why did it have to come through this other domain.
We need more information about this.
Quite frankly most advertisers don't care about click fraud in Google because there is nothing they can do about it and you factor the fraud into your click price.
I couldn't disagree more.
What options are open to us:
1. Go with the flow and some of us will get paid small amounts of money.
2. Fight it, how would we do this coherently? Suing people is time intensive and costly. Who would champion such an effort? Sempo, or some other body might be inclined to help but it would take some big wig getting involved?
Maybe the answer lies in understanding the scale of the fraud better. With this kind of information everyone would be able to see what was in it for them. Personally I'm of the opion at least 1% of all the clicks we recieve have some sort of click fraud but I do not have any hard proof of this.
Some friends of mine did do a study and found substantial click fraud though.
It'll be interesting to see where this goes to next.
I received two emails. One to my special AW email box(only google has this address). The second email was sent to my wife's address (again, only google has this address).
I think they are legit unless someone hacked to the AW system and grabbed the entire clients database off course.
Why are they being sent from some third party domain still baffles me though.
[edited by: Web_speed at 8:35 am (utc) on May 21, 2006]
<edit>I am sure there must be something that can be done about this case. I don't like being made a member of any action, class or otherwise, without asking to be. This shouldn't be opt-out and neither should my email be given to them (goes to read Google TOS and Privacy Policy</edit>
<edit>I have replied to their email notifying them that I am unable to accept or review any legal document sent by electronic mail and that I require them to send all legal documents by recorded post to my address in the UK.</edit>
[edited by: vincevincevince at 9:23 am (utc) on May 21, 2006]
Like may others here, we use dedicated email addresses for all Adwords accounts - therefore they are not used anywhere else on the web...
I'm not opening that attachment.
CJ
I get the impression they really don't want people to object (giving only 30 days including postage time) and requiring a letter to be sent to all of three foreign addresses. Perhaps the dead website is all part of trying to serve documents but let people forget about it.
I've written a privacy complaint to Google as from the posts here it seems to be personal and business information provided by them which is being used. Google is only allowed to share our information with third parties to comply with a legal process - which a settlement is specifically not.
They must have gotten it from google since I use that email for google adwords only.
The question now is: What is the best thing to do:
- Pursue it?
- Ignore it?
As I look around the internet I see nearly all of the TOS being brocken. What really pees me off is a webmaster on whoos site my adds appear signing all his posts to public forums "if you visit my site, please click the ads to help pay for the bandwidth".
Another excellent site I visit regularly has just been completely ripped off by a made for adsense site. Years of work and community input copied word for word.
Complaints to Google come to nothing.
Google search is slowly becoming unusable due to the number of made for adsense sites it throws up.
The general usefullness of the intenet is being eroded.
I would like to give Google the benefit of the doubt and say they are a victim of their own success, and the shear scale of AdWords use means that it cannot be policed.
However, I feel empires come and go, and this one will be short lived unless Google can somehow pull a rabit out of their hat.
If this email is genuine then maybe it is the shot in the arm that is needed, but then they must have been aware of it for yonks, with thing apparently changing for the better yet.
If so, I think I will opt out: I guess I'm not anywhere close to being a medium-to-big AdWords spender, plus I don't believe I've been a victim of click fraud so far.
the attached PDF says that if I don't exclude myself (opt out) by mailing a signed letter, I won't be able to
That's something I don't understand. How can I give up my rights to sue Google by not reading an email from a third party? Perhaps someone here with legal knowledge can explain how this company can take my legal rights away 'by default'?
That's something I don't understand. How can I give up my rights to sue Google by not reading an email from a third party? Perhaps someone here with legal knowledge can explain how this company can take my legal rights away 'by default'?
Could someone please clarify that? (I'm European and non-lawyer, so I have zero knowledge of US law regarding class action settlements). Thanks.
