Tell HN: Google closed my non-profit AdSense and Programmable Search accounts
For the first few months we had little traffic and was just shy of our first 600 DKK payout, but in October things seemed to take off and had reached around 2000 DKK by October 17. When I wanted to add a payment method then I encountered the following error:
> We couldn't complete this action. Try a different verification, payment method, or contact us. [OR-BAAVFT-03]
My community forum post was ignored (afaik the only way to contact the AdSense department?), but I managed to get in contact with the Google Pay department who were able to solve the issue. Things were finally coming together and shared my excitement in another HN thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33256412#33258630.
But when I woke up this morning then saw an email stating "Your Google Publisher Account has been disabled" with the following text:
> [...] In your case, we have detected invalid traffic or activity on your account (Publisher Code: pub-1984005958321147) and as a result it has been disabled. [...]
I do use MullvadVPN, but I never click on my own ads even if they're relevant, and both the search results and ads would appear without problems when using VPN, so I feel it's a bit farfetched to blame that on the invalid traffic/activity (since they could just opt not to display search results/ads for certain IPs).
To make matters worse, they even closed my Programmable Search Engine account (cx=9715cb86fd27e9ba0) so now the website is not able to display any search results at all (and can only show instant answers on some queries, e.g. https://ask.moe/search/web?q=600+dkk+to+usd). I can't even access the settings page to review traffic, and Google hasn't sent any email regarding the closure of the Programmable Search Engine account.
I'd really appreciate if anybody is able to help or provide suggestions about how to proceed from here. Switching (back) to the Bing Search API is not really an option because it feels impossible to join the Microsoft Advertising network.
5 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 25.6 ms ] thread> Hello,
> Thank you for your appeal. We appreciate your continued interest in our program. However, after taking into consideration the information that you have provided, we have confirmed that we are unable to reinstate your publisher account.
> Please note that your account will not receive further payments. You are not eligible for further participation in our publisher programs, and may not create new accounts.
> Thank you for understanding.
> Sincerely,
> The Google Ad Traffic Quality Team
> --
> Google
> You have received this mandatory email service announcement to update you about important changes to your Google ads publisher account.
The original mission of the website was "to build and promote software that respect people's privacy", and at that time then the website would include a link to a somewhat political page that voiced support for GDPR, encouraged people to "upgrade their browser to Firefox", recommended extensions like uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Multi-Account Containers, and software like Signal, Syncthing, etc. I stopped linking to this page after switching over to Google's Programmable Search Engine as the website was reimplemented from scratch.
But since I was unable to join Microsoft Advertising (not sure why since Microsoft ignored my application and emails, but I assume due to lack of traffic) to offset the costs of the Bing Search API then I decided to switch to Google Programmable Search - this meant that it would be impossible for the website to be privacy-focused since I couldn't proxy people's search queries, so I decided to change the mission to instead donate all profits to other non-profit organizations and charities with a proven track record (and with the plan to later let users decide which charities we should donate the money to). The initial recipients promoted on the website are EFF, All Hands and Hearts, Friends of Animals, Against Malaria Foundation, Doctors Without Borders and GiveDirectly. I can see why Google might not be too happy about EFF, but it feels too extreme for that to have caused them to close the accounts so I don't think that's the reason.