Hacker News Reader

Comment by Klinky | Hacker News Reader

How was this not already a thing? How does Google not already have a billing address on file for all the advertisers they're accepting money from? It seems like this shouldn't have ever been "voluntary information".

View on HN

The reason it isn't already a thing is because it would require a law on the books across all scales for business records with compliance costs - down to Billy Bob's Billboards where he takes cash for ad postings. The legal system is still based on assumptions of the government not having default access to all financial transactions as not only would it have been just useless abusable spam but it would have generated massive expenses for little gain and drawn considerable ire. Plus said proposal would trigger every Revelations literalist about "the number of the Beast" as well as privacy advocates and businessess upset at increased compliance costs and liability. Until the Fake News rise approaching moral panic absolutely nobody would be for it.

Hell if they were to try to codify such requirements it may not even survive the supreme court.

but...waving hands vaguely, what about banks and "know your customer"? If it's possible to regulate them, why not Google?

Not making an airtight detailed argument, but I feel like you must be misguided because your tone suggests that a massive societal upheaval is necessary for the sort of controls we already take for granted in certain areas.

Having a billing address is a far cry from identify verification

THey have a payment method as well which is definitely identity verification. Don't expect this to filter everyone hiding behind fronts and shell orgs, but it's a step towards that.

The whole point is that a payment is not and identity verification

No, the point is that they may already be advising someone on how to manage a brand for a business, a business that potentially they didn't really know if that someone is actually a representative of the brand? They may be granting access to AdWords accounts to be managed by third parties, and they don't know if those third parties are who they say they are, or actually a representative of the brand they are managing? Their job is just to rake in payments from people they don't actually know? Again, did they not already have methods in place to establish some level of trust that the person on the other end is who they say they are?

Google already had a "Verify your local business" option, I wonder if this data was integrated into AdWords accounts as well. https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242?hl=en It seems like this data should already be on file and verified if you are business advertising with AdWords.

If you really don't trust the the information the person has provided to give you money you probably should not be accepting their money.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com