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Google Adsense wants to call you?

Why would Google Adsense want to verify your account using your phone number?

I’m guessing this is a North American verification system or only applies to new accounts because they haven’t asked me to verify my account this way yet. But it’s interesting that they’re using phone numbers to verify accounts. Wouldn’t that give them access to some very lucrative customer data?

And it doesn’t appear to be optional. From the graphic on the blog post, it seems that your earnings will be held until you verify your phone number (”Action is required to release payment“). I don’t see any explanation as to why you would need to verify your account using your phone number.

I seem to remember verifying my account using the PIN they sent in the mail, and verifying the test deposits into my account. I wonder if anyone is upset with the obligation to use the phone number verification system?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Current posts, Adsense tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Google Adsense wants to call you?”

  1. Allan Gardyne Says:
    May 16th, 2007 at 10:39 pm MyAvatars 0.2

    No. I’m not upset at all. It’s good to see Google taking some small steps at quality control. Google allows far too many annoying, rubbishy made-for-AdSense sites to break the AdSense rules and pollute the Internet. If Google is imposing quality control on one part of its operation, perhaps it will improve other areas, too.

  2. Neil_Shearing Says:
    May 17th, 2007 at 8:42 am MyAvatars 0.2

    Hi Allan,

    Thanks for visiting. :-)

    I’m not sure how phone verification can help to stop spammy sites. Presumably the bank-account verification and PIN verification didn’t. I’m more concerned about the privacy implications of having Google demand you verify a phone number before paying out commissions.

    I actually think Google has a very good mechanism for preventing spammy sites from making any real money. Firstly, they’re unlikely to ever naturally rank high in the search engines because they won’t get quality links, hence they’ll always be consigned to poor search engine rankings and very low traffic. Secondly, I’m sure any site which does get high traffic, and is breaking the rules will be visited by a Google representative and banned. As I metioned here…
    http://www.neilshearing.com/2007/01/17/permanent-adsense-site-ban-but-not-an-account-ban/

    Neil.

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