Google’s online advertising program AdWords, costs the search engine giant half a billion dollars to settle federal government charges for allowing illegal ads to participate in the advertising program. The ads promoted prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies, and appeared on US-based websites which makes Google an accomplice of such illegal act. In the past Google prevented other online pharmacies to use AdWords. In this case it acted differently by allowing illegal ads and helping the Canadian pharmacies in optimizing their advertisements.
Some suggest that the Google settlement is an example of the current determination by the government in safeguarding this valuable asset – the Internet, and getting the private sector involved or better participate in the fight. I am not so sure if this incident will get private enterprises on board, however, a good move by the US government would be to invest the money collected from Google in the fight against cyber criminality.
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