misleading advertising

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  koolinus · Member · Oct 17, 2018 at 11:55 am

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  Hello !
  Today on my website I saw multiple times this misleading advertising.

  

  OK, I understand I’m on a free tier plan, but from Automattic and “the community” I was expecting ethics in every piece of the “WordPress.com” experience.

  I do hope none of my visitors will click on that kind of Ads.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  musicdoc1 · Member · Oct 17, 2018 at 5:48 pm

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  Hi,

  That looks like it might be a browser banner ad, rather than an advertisement on the site. I’ll tag the topic for staff attention. Staff will respond here.

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  gemmacevans · Member · Oct 18, 2018 at 9:33 am

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  Hi koolinus and musicdoc1,

  That looks like it might be a browser banner ad, rather than an advertisement on the site.

  This is indeed a site ad — our advertising partners are running tests with a new type of ad that can appear at the bottom, top or side of the browser window. So the placement will look a little different to the placement you have seen to date.

  I understand I’m on a free tier plan, but from Automattic and “the community” I was expecting ethics in every piece of the “WordPress.com” experience.

  The ad subject will vary between visitors as it is partly determined by browsing history — so not all visitors will see the exact ad you were seeing.

  However, I’ve passed your feedback and screenshot on to the ads team so they can take a look at the quality. There is also an option to “report this ad” at the bottom right so you can use that to report similar ads you come across.

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  gemmacevans · Member · Oct 18, 2018 at 10:24 am

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  Following on from my last reply — our ads team have asked if you can provide us with this information:

  1. The exact URL where you are seeing the ad on your site.
  2. The time you saw the ad.
  3. Your IP address (this can be found on supportdetails.com).

  Thanks!

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  koolinus · Member · Oct 22, 2018 at 3:34 pm

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  Hello !
  Sorry for the late reply , I had no notification on this.

  Point 1 and 2 are replied in my opening post. Date was 17 October 2018 and the URL was the home of my blog that can be read in the attached image and at the bottom of the post (which is automatically generated by this forum BTW).

  As for the IP I cannot provide it, since I don’t remember if I saw it while at work (were I have a fixed IP that can send in private to the staff) or at home, were I am on a domestic ADSL line with “shared IP” along with other people with the same Internet Provider in my area.

  Thanks!

  PS #1 = I do not play on-line, having a small child I just browse and read emails … so the ad was entirely not related to my personal navigation history

  PS #2 = I do use firewalls / ad-blocker and other tools to keep a minimum of privacy while browsing

  PS #2 = I do use the “notify me of follow-up replies” … I’ll double check if the previous have been put in the Spam folder of Gmail ;-)