Google takes on short-term loans

Short-term loans have joined a list including guns, tobacco and drugs as Google bans its ads from ad systems.

With the removal of the ads, Google hopes to protect its users from deceptive or harmful financial products.

From 13 July, short-term loans, or payday loans, will no longer be in Google’s AdWords system, with ads removed for loans due within 60 days and those with an annual percentage rate of 36 percent or higher. They will no longer appear at the top of search results.

Global product policy director David Graff said in a blog post, the change will protect users from harmful financial products and related products however, companies offering loans such as mortgages, car loans, student loans, commercial loans, revolving loans and revolving lines and credit.

Short-term loan ads are the latest to be dropped by Google, with the search engine disabling more than 780 million ads last year to protect users from fake of harmful products and misleading brands.