Google is now used for more than 80 percent of all online searches. There’s a dark side to the most popular search engine in the world. Users who are looking for critical health information may be exposed to harmful and exploitative misinformation as companies compete for advertising space that appears alongside search query results.
Read on: Why fake health information spreads faster than the truth
By 2024, North Americans will use Google to find news, information, and entertainment, including topics like natural disasters. Nearly 70% of Canadians search online for health-related information.
Search engines
They can provide valuable information. These phrases and questions can be used to inform surveillance, and give insight into global and regional trends.
These data are also extremely valuable for online marketing teams. They can track who searches for what and where. Queries are now used not only for search tracking but also for advertising. This reality raises ethical, regulatory, and public health concerns.
Advertising is so lucrative that a 30-second time slot during the a href=”https://youtu.be/qeGO2qWE_bA?feature=shared”>Super Bowl/a> now costs upwards of a href=”https://youtu.be/qeGO2qWE_bA?feature= shared”>US$8 million/a>. A 30-second slot in the Super Bowl can cost up to US$8,000,000.
Search results are now accompanied by targeted ads based on the search queries that users enter.
High demand spots
Advertising on Google’s results page, is as highly sought after as a Super Bowl commercial.
Companies must outbid each other to secure the ad spaces that are determined by the search terms. An advertiser can buy ad space on Google for a phrase or keyword.
For example, companies with snack products may compete to have their sponsored content appear when people search for “Super Bowl Party Snacks,” “new flavours of chips” or “chips and dip ideas”.
Our research revealed that this practice, while seemingly harmless, is not without risk when the industry uses personal, sensitive, and critical health terms.
Searches for cancer, exploitative ads
We analyzed, using the AI-driven platform SemRush the search terms that were purchased by infamous alternative cancer clinics located in Tijuana Mexico and Arizona. We analyzed the queries that were being targeted, and how much money was spent to acquire advertising space for these queries.
We also evaluated whether these expenditures increased traffic to the clinic websites. Over the course of a decade, we found that these clinics spent over US$15,000,000 on ad space for thousands search terms and phrases.
These search queries were related to cancer diagnosis and prognosis, alternative treatment options and cancer types such as late-stage cancer. The advertising strategy resulted in more than 6.5 millions website visits to alternative cancer clinics.
Negative health effects
The success of alternative clinics in marketing is a disaster to the health and wellbeing of the public. Alternative cancer treatments can increase the death rate, and give false hope to those with end-stage cancer.
The ineffective, and sometimes dangerous treatments are a threat to patients’ financial well-being . They can also disrupt the end-of life planning .
Google has enabled an advertising option which contributes to spreading inaccurate cancer misinformation, which can lead directly to harmful health-related action.
Protection against deception
Our research was confined to the cancer context, and we analyzed the targeted query approach for problematic clinics at two specific locations. This approach could be used in other contexts, and is very likely to do so.
Google has policies that protect users against misleading advertising. There is little oversight on how advertisers can exploit the keyword ad-matching features.
Google must take immediate action to stop its advertising system from being exploited in this way. Search results might only give priority to sites that are backed by scientific evidence. Google could ban the purchase of advertising for search terms that are ostensibly controversial. It would also include sensitive personal queries, such as those of cancer patients and others with life-threatening illnesses.
Google , and other social media platforms , benefit financially from misinformation. These companies must decide whether the health of people and their well-being are more important than financial gain. We must all speak out for those who have been harmed by harmful misinformation.
Alessandro Marcon is a member of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, which received CIHR funding for this project.
Marco Zenone has been awarded the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
