We use purpose-built technology and work with child safety organisatio — Google

"The destiny of Googles search engine is to become that Star Trek computer, and thats what we are building."

"Google Analytics is a measurement product that helps businesses better understand their web and app performance. Any data in Google Analytics is obfuscated, meaning it is not tied back to an individual and our policies prohibit customers from sending us data that could be used to identify a user. Additionally, Google has strict policies against advertising to people based on sensitive information."

"About 650 Google workers have signed a petition asking the company to protect users abortion-related location data and search history. The move comes over concerns that law enforcement agencies will seek such data from Google to prosecute abortion seekers. Workers sent the petition Wednesday to Google-parent Alphabets top executives, including CEO Sundar Pichai. Most of the workers belong to the Alphabet Workers Union, according to Bambi Okugawa, a spokesperson for the group. "If Google or Facebook or any tech company wants to present the face of being a compassionate company and an ally for people that need reproductive health care or gender affirming health care, then they need to back that up in their actions by protecting privacy," said Okugawa, who works at a data center in Tennessee, where a law is going into effect this month that will outlaw abortion."

"When people are looking for abortion services, they often turn to Google, searching a phrase like "abortion clinic near me" or "planned parenthood." Yet the ads theyll see at the top of the Google search results are often not abortion providers at all, but instead misleading ads for anti-abortion "crisis pregnancy centers" — facilities that use various tactics to dissuade or delay pregnant people from getting an abortion. Any delay or confusion can have serious consequences: Strict bans in much of the country mean people seeking surgical abortions may have to travel hundreds of miles, and ordering abortion pills by mail can be legally thorny. These ads on Google are no small business, according to a new report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a U.S.- and U.K.-based nonprofit focused on research, campaigns and policy to counteract hate and disinformation. The group finds that anti-abortion pregnancy centers in the U.S. spent an estimated $10.2 million on Google Search ads over a two-year period, and those ads were clicked on an estimated 13 million times. The groups researchers began by identifying 976 websites for anti-abortion pregnancy centers. Using the enterprise analytics tool Semrush, they found that 188 of the centers had actively run Google search ads between March 2021 and February 2023. They assessed those centers ads, websites and the keywords for which they bought paid advertising. Among the organizations findings: 38% of the centers that advertised on Google in this period had no homepage disclaimer stating that they dont provide abortions. That appears to violate a Google policy prohibiting ads or destinations concealing or misstating information about the advertisers business, product or service. Researchers found that the anti-abortion pregnancy centers targeted more than 15,000 queries related to abortion, including phrases like "telehealth abortion pill texas" and "how much is an abortion in california."

"Digital marketing firms that specifically cater to anti-abortion pregnancy centers make the ad-buying strategy clear. One such firm, Choose Life Marketing, has a guide that urges the centers to buy Google keywords using abortion terms. "Its vital to reach women on their phones early in the search process, before the abortion clinic can reach them," it says. Choose Life Marketings guide recommends that centers note on their websites that they do not provide or refer abortions, while suggesting ad language thats vague about what the center does provide. "You can also be creative and instead use abortion terms in your ads without using them to describe a service offering: Get the facts before scheduling an abortion... or Considering Abortion? " it says. "Reaching abortion-minded women requires centers to be very strategic in all areas of marketing, but especially in Google advertising." In a guide focused on reaching women in states with restrictive abortion laws, Choose Life recommends that anti-abortion centers "bid on keywords related to the next city or town where abortion is available." Paid advertising, it says, "can help reach her in the knick [sic] of time. This is especially critical for reaching women before they travel for abortion."

"Supporting Wikipedia is [...] a shrewd business decision that will likely benefit Google for years to come."