As Google has increased scrutiny of information around politics, in the area of health information, the platform is engaging in a series of policies detrimental to consumers who need quality health information.
Google Crackdown Prevents Access To Critical Cancer Information
- New Google policies prevent medically vetted websites from accessing critical Google ad products
- Google blacklist policies are triggered by important terms for cancer patients such as drug names
- Facing the prospect of increasing regulation, Google has been ramping efforts to prevent the spread of general fake news which can damage the public interest
- Google also says it wants to fight the spread of fake news for health information, however its blunt policies prevent cancer patients from accessing crucial information for treatment decisions
Even as the world’s most important search company says it is pursuing significant steps to improve available health information by cracking down on “fake news” in medicine, companies such as SurvivorNet are now prohibited from accessing Google’s critical advertising services because of a broad policy discriminating against sites that include words such as “morphine”, “Keytruda“, and “dexamethasone.”
Read MoreCensoring Cancer Information
The drugs which Google has declared so offensive that they result in a ban, play an essential role in the lives of millions of cancer patients. Morphine is a powerful painkiller that helps patients cope with the crippling pain that can come wihth cancer, Keytruda has become one of the most important drugs in all of cancer by helping the immune system to attack cancer cells, and dexamethasone is a steroid used to help treat the blood cancer multiple myeloma, and now in the care of people with COVID-19.
The change in Google’s policies seem to have been tied to a crackdown coinciding with run-up to the 2020 presidential election. Before this, essential information for cancer patients was not deemed by Google to be a disqualifying factor for access to its advertising products.
For the last three months, on more than a dozen occasions, SurvivorNet has asked Google for clarification on its policies, and for reasonable review to help legitimate providers of health information be able to propagate this information. Google’s response has been a request to remove the “offending” words (the crucial concepts for cancer patients) from thousands of articles on the SurvivorNet site.
“It’s the equivalent of allowing McDonald’s to open in your town, but telling them they can’t sell hamburgers,” says Alperin.
Google’s Impact on Health Sites
Google’s policy bars medically vetted sites such as SurvivorNet from critical aspects of internet infrastructure, including Google Ads. These ads are used to generate revenue and attract traffic.
Google’s New Policies
Google has been in the headlines this year for what some privacy advocates view as intrusive collection of private medical information.
New reports have found that Google collects personal medical information from government agencies, private medical centers, and even search patterns. Congress is currently investigating healthcare company Ascension, which shares private and non-anonymized medical information with Google, for violation of of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, commonly known as HIPAA.
As the coronavirus pandemic intensified and fake cures spread, Google began to amend its policies on health-related information to root out these false cures. But the unintended consequences of these broad policies could be devastating for cancer patients who rely on SurvivorNet and other sites for critical information.
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.