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Google Wallet scrapes transaction memos for "Bitcoin", states violation of ToS

18 points by synaesthesisx ↗ HN
Backstory: A colleague of mine had owned me about $200, and I said he could pay me via paypal, google wallet or (jokingly) bitcoins. A few weeks ago he transferred me money using Google Wallet with the memo "using this since I have no bitcoins".

Fast forward several weeks later; he received the following email from Google:

"It appears that you may be sending transactions that violate our Terms of Service for Send Money with Gmail.

Your Google Wallet account has recently come under review for a Terms of Service violation. Your transaction [redacted] with the memo, “bitcoins”, is in violation of Sections 6 and 7 of the Google Wallet Terms of Service for Send Money with Gmail. We may decline to process such transactions or close your account if we identify in the future that you are using your account for these purposes.

Sincerely, The Google Wallet Team"

I was kind of baffled that they would actually read through the transaction memos, or flag anything bitcoin-related, but it appears to be the case. Upon some research it looks like Google has been doing this for some time:

http://estrip.org/articles/read/joe/58328/Google_wants_a_cut.html

Not sure what to make of this...just know that if you use a service like Google Wallet to send money to friends they're definitely watching.

5 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 25.6 ms ] thread
mcintyre1994
I think some banks might do this too. I know one site where you pay by bank transfer with a specific code as reference said very clearly never to use "bitcoin" in that reference or you'd be banned. I suspect Google don't share the fraud liability of banks though so this is kind of surprising.
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gregcohn
Wow. I wonder what would happen if you wrote "you really murdered me on the golf course today, here's your 20 bucks".
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munimkazia
Heh.. Sorry man, but this is pretty funny. I think we are going to start having to resort to the old chatroom techniques to get around words which are censored. Want some b1tc01n5?