Using Google Ads, Google’s advertising tool, some alternative private clinics use keywords provided by the service to divert cancer patients conducting medical searches to their websites.
When we are in a situation of distress, as is the case when we suffer from a serious illness, we seek information to better manage the situation: what is the prognosis associated with the illness? What treatments are available and which are the best? How do we live with the disease?
In the era of digitaldigitalthe tool par excellence for asking this type of question is the search engine. Unsurprisingly, the one that unquestionably dominates the market, with more than 80% of global searches to its credit, is GoogleGoogle.
Capitalization of distress
A team of English-speaking researchers demonstrated that the firm allows alternative private clinics, via its advertising department Google AdsGoogle Adsto target sensitive searches carried out by cancer patients with the aim of using them as keywords to attract potential future patients. These alternative clinics – which are medical in name only – are fond of this strategy. According to data collected by academics, they spent more than $15 million on Google Ads, which led to a number of visits to their sites InternetInternet approaching 7 million between 2012 and 2013, representing almost half of their traffic over this same period.
Considerable risks for patients
In their article, the researchers recall facts well known in the medical literature. Indeed, so-called alternative treatments are not trivial, especially when suffering from a serious pathology such as cancer: increased risk of death when these solutions are used instead of conventional care, delay in medical care and, consequently, impact on the patient’s survival, false hopes depriving the patient of quality palliative care and precious time with loved ones, etc. If these alternative clinics use malicious and manipulative strategies, United States health policy is also partly responsible given the precarious situation in which many patients find themselves unable to access conventional care due to lack of means.
Survey: alternative medicine, what should we think about it? (3/3)
-A structuring juggernaut of disinformation
The researchers point out that numerous research shows that Google profits from these disinformation strategies and that the company helps maintain the infrastructure that allows their propagation. One might think that in this type of situation, and many others, ethical reflection on the algorithms used would be necessary, to allow the least to prevent access to certain sensitive data or the blocking of certain specific keywords in order to avoid such predatory strategies. However, Google’s history in mattermatter of ethics, notably with the dismissal of Timnit Gebru, seems to confirm the slippery slope on which the company is engaged.
Tournesol: the public utility algorithm that needs you!
It doesn’t just happen to others
Finally, if you are not convinced of the malice of these strategies and think that the responsibility lies with the user to be careful about the information they encounter, know that beyond the fact that we are all unequal in terms of skills to disentangle fact from fiction on the Internet, these clinics exploit powerful psychological biases such as the truth effect, confirmation bias and optimism bias.
Being rational won’t stop you from falling into the trap of misinformation
Also, they target people in distress situations where our ability to reason and make good decisions is impaired. The next target of these clinics could be you or your loved ones.
