Who are these people and what's their game?

[Minbani]

Has anyone come across whorush.com before please? These people are exposing our Adsense pub-ID's and charging anyone who wants to see the full domain name.

Next question: How can Google allow them to 'fit behind' our pub-id's exposing our private information? As far as I'm concerned, Google is not taking 'due care and diligence' of my account.

Yes, I am a PoP ( pee'd off pussycat) as I feel I have been invaded.

I have looked them up on whois.com and see that they come from Hong Kong. Here's the copy/paste of the whois results:

Domain Name:whorush.com
Record created:2010/6/3
Record expired:2011/6/3

Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.dns-diy.net ns2.dns-diy.net

Administrat:
name-- Domain ID Shield Service
org-- Domain ID Shield Service CO., Limited
country-- CN
province-- Hong Kong
city-- Hong Kong
address-- 1102-1103,11/F,Kowloon Bldg.,555 Nathan Rd.,Mongkok,Kowloon
postalcode-- 999077
telephone-- +852.22060092
fax-- +852.30030133
E-mail-- wh4101807169601@absolutee.com
Technical Contact:
name-- Domain ID Shield Service
org-- Domain ID Shield Service CO., Limited
country-- CN
province-- Hong Kong
city-- Hong Kong
address-- 1102-1103,11/F,Kowloon Bldg.,555 Nathan Rd.,Mongkok,Kowloon
postalcode-- 999077
telephone-- +852.22060092
fax-- +852.30030133
E-mail-- wh4101807493902@absolutee.com
Billing Contact:
name-- Domain ID Shield Service
org-- Domain ID Shield Service CO., Limited
country-- CN
province-- Hong Kong
city-- Hong Kong
address-- 1102-1103,11/F,Kowloon Bldg.,555 Nathan Rd.,Mongkok,Kowloon
postalcode-- 999077
telephone-- +852.22060092
fax-- +852.30030133
E-mail-- wh4101807366803@absolutee.com
Registrant Contact:
name-- Domain ID Shield Service
org-- Domain ID Shield Service CO., Limited
country-- CN
province-- Hong Kong
city-- Hong Kong
address-- 1102-1103,11/F,Kowloon Bldg.,555 Nathan Rd.,Mongkok,Kowloon
postalcode-- 999077
telephone-- +852.22060092
fax-- +852.30030133
E-mail-- wh4101807232704@absolutee.com

Isn't this illegal? Or am I just getting my tail knotted for nothing?

[Havenhood]

I wouldn't get too upset over this. Your Google Adsense code is available to anyone that visits your page, and there's nothing private about it. I know what it is... All I had to do is view the page source code to find it. As far as other private information, it's not private. You can pay to have it hidden from public view, though.

The DNS information doesn't look like it's their correct information.

[Black Hat Cat]

Originally Posted by Minbani

Has anyone come across whorush.com before please? These people are exposing our Adsense pub-ID's and charging anyone who wants to see the full domain name.

No they aren't, you're websites are exposing your Adsense IDs.

Next question: How can Google allow them to 'fit behind' our pub-id's exposing our private information?

How can they not allow it? Besides, what is it exactly you think they have revealed about you?

Or am I just getting my tail knotted for nothing?

To say the least.

[Minbani]

OK, thanks guys. I'll go take a cool shower. It's the first time I've ever had my pub-ID displayed above my adsense ad. Being able to find my pub-ID in the source code by able geeks who want to, is one thing.Seeing it displayed above one of my Adsense ads I still don't think is fair.

But thank you both for your speedy reply. You are appreciated :-)

[Minbani]

I went to the Adsense forum and they have been very helpful and amazingly fast. This information comes from a Firefox plugin called SEO Quake which I have recently re-installed. When it is turned on, one of the new features is to display the adsense pub-ID above the adsense block for anyone who is using the plugin to see.

I don't use any other contextual publishers yet so it is only showing my Google pub-ID.

I feel as if my contractual agreement with Google has been violated. Others may feel differently. See this link for more information SeoQuake [Team blog] » New handy service – AdsSpy.com (no affiliate link)

[Conrad Stuart]

All the kitties on these profile pics are making me wanna put my cat up there, just can't bring myself to do it though, plus she hates being photographed

[almondj]

When is the obsession with cats going to end? Bieber is more exciting than cats even.

To answer your question, if you have adsense, your id is readily available within the code.

[Ben Rudge]

How does one benefit from seeing another persons adsense pub-id anyway? Why are they providing such a weird service?

If I was on a site and I saw a google ad with someones adsense id displayed above it I can't see myself being all like "ahaaaH! Gotcha!!! Now I know you're ID!!!!! hahaaaaa!!!! Snap!!!"

To me that's just as silly as people getting their knickers in a bunch over buying something and getting all upset cos they can tell its an affiliate link.

"AHAAAA!!!! Someones benefiting from me doing what I was gonna do anyway, how DARE they!!!!!!!!!"

Whatever their game is, it seems quite pointless to me. Just a scare tactic or something. Just plain weird if you ask me.

Ben

[Jayem]

I think that the bottom line is that using this service, you can find all the successful network of adsense sites and copy their success perhaps?

[markowe]

Originally Posted by Ben Rudge

How does one benefit from seeing another persons adsense pub-id anyway? Why are they providing such a weird service?

It's a spying tool - if you can see all the other sites made by the same publisher then you can maybe start picking apart and reverse-engineering their success or whatever. I suppose there must be people out there doing this. It is good to know sometimes that a site heartily and 'impartially' recommending another site is actually owned by the same Adsense publisher, for example, but not something I can really be bothered with.

And it doesn't show anywhere NEAR the true number of my sites with Adsense on

[Tony Dean]

I can't understand what the fuss is all about!

[paul seo guru]

So i'll enter the convo late,

These people who are hosting in Hong kong using Domain ID Shield Service to hide there details are very hard to contact. For anyone who wishes to contact them I suggest contacting the web hosts using their email: sales at onlinenic.com - hope it helps everyone.

Regards,
Paul

[awj888]

yeah all PubIDs are public. why they are showing up above your add is a lil bit wierd. but not breaking anything rules.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by Minbani

I feel as if my contractual agreement with Google has been violated.

Lol, your pub-ID has been violated.

Is nothing sacred in this world?

Seriously, scraping pub-IDs has been around for years.