Adwords campaign rejected. For Google Matomo javascript is a Malware

General questions
#81

Update for anyone interested: Had to remove the Matomo script from my sites before Google would review my Ads. For each Ad account, I have had to ask for a manual review as they kept claiming the Matomo script was still on the website.

In addition, I have two Ad accounts which have been suspended due to Circumventing Systems policy. For these accounts Google has shutdown all communication so I can’t even find out what the specific issue is. Very frustrating. Particularly since it seems its all based on Google’s misinterpretation of the Matomo script.

#82

Antony,

Sorry to hear of all your troubles. Sadly, I don’t see this issue going away any time soon. Google is monopolistic and non-responsive to its customers, paying or non-paying. They don’t have to answer to anyone because we use their services regardless of how they treat us.

This issue gets to the heart of why Matomo exists.

I realize this probably isn’t an option for you, but the best solution is to stop using Google. I’m rarely in the advertising realm, but are there viable alternatives?

#84

Just had a client have their Google Ads denied saying that Matomo was malware, thing is as well that the plugin hasn’t been active for over 3 months on this site and certainly has no Matomo JS scripts, so Google must be going on old scans.

Is really shameful how Google treats a lot of users and companies - clearly feel threatened.

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#85

This is sad to see this is happening. As a developer and marketer with Get Found I really want to use Matomo with everything we do, but if Google keeps doing this, we are up against a wall.

I feel like someone at Matomo should take this very serious and file a suit (maybe even class action) to get this monopolistic monster deflated a bit.

I really want to see some change here folks. Feel free to reach out if I can help.

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#86

Thanks Mark for the sympathetic words. Yeah it’s a pretty crappy situation. Google actually shutting down all methods of communication is super low and unethical. Didn’t even have the opportunity to offer any explanation.

But you’re right, alternatives are the way to go. Unfortunately, here in Australia the biggest competitor is Bing but they fall so very short on the search engine market share, around 3% or so last time I checked.

Fortunately, we upped our SEO efforts on the effected campaigns and have been able to get by without paid advertising for the moment.

As a side comment, we also had a lot of other Ad accounts that were suspended for other reasons, mostly malicious software (this happened in the space of a week and about 1-2 weeks after implementing Matomo) but for this reason Google allowed communication and we were able to prove there was in fact no malicious software on our sites (after removing the Matomo script) and we had our Ad accounts reinstated.

Seems like very un-competitive behaviour from Google.

Thanks

#87

100% agreed. The choice should be ours on what software we use on our sites.

Not only the concern about losing the Ad accounts, but what if the search algo decided the sites had malicious software on them and disappeared from the SERPS.

Google should not be allowed to punish the use of alternate software.

#88

Still happening in June 2021. It’s been over a year now, and it seems that Matomo is being steam-rolled into non-mainstream use because of this.

Any idea on you guys getting a “so called clean bill of health”? You have no idea how irate I am at this.

Feel free to add me to any class action if anyone wants to step up here because honestly, this act is costing business owners and admins a ton of money.

2 Likes
#89

Hi,

Just to document it:

There was a quite popular tweet by someone experiencing the same issue:

which caused a longer discussion here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27294455

1 Like
Google Ads declares matomo as maleware
#90

Thanks for sharing. I sent and made a comment on his tweet.

#91

August 2021 and getting this same issue. Contacted 2 google support reps, both of whom did practically nothing. First one said to manually change each ad (we have over 400+ ads banned… great) and submit. Did that, they all came back banned, even AFTER we removed Matomo from our sites.

This is fully anti-trust behavior. I can not believe Google can get away with this. Considering finding an attorney because this is causing a loss of client revenue, just for using a Google product competitor.

#92

do not talk to google about this, they will just give you the middle finger.

you have to remove any reference to the word “matomo” everywhere, including matomo.js

matomo team should make an option to customize and anonymize any reference to matomo

#93

Still happening, I just got flagged by malware and then Google Tag Manager reported also that the Matomo tag is malware.

Does anybody have a solution?

#94

Hi, I can confirm that I have the issue now again on multiple websites.
Google informed me (also different ADs-Accounts) that the Matomo URLs are maleware, we try since over a week to handle this with the Google Ads-Support but still not resolved at the moment.
Any other idea what we can do?

Thanks,
Best.

#95

Hi
Did you manage to resolve this? These kind of problems keep me from switching 100% to Matomo.
Thanks

#96

Hey,

nope… this is currently a topic to leave Matomo for us and our corporate customers in case we can’t use Google Ads. Also the support here can’t help here till now…

Best,

#97

The total number of Matomo instances is in the hundreds of thousands, including very high traffic Matomo APIs at large organizations. About once per week we hear of one site being listed as malware. Which as a percentage is small. But if that one site is your site, it is one too many.

Please continue to report any false positive to the appropriate sites.
Two third parties which maintain lists of reporting sites are here:
https://www.starmessagesoftware.com/blog/report-submit-false-positive-antivirus-software
https://www.techsupportalert.com/how-to-report-malware-or-false-positives-to-multiple-antivirus-vendors/

#98

Today a user reported:

Kaspersy (Internet Security) detects our matomo.js as malware. In my Chrome debugger I see the following:
matomo.js net::ERR_ABORTED 499 (Request has been forbidden by antivirus)

#99

A user reports:
" My web shop ________ has been classified as malware by some virus programs (AVG + G-Data + Bit-Defender)"

*The AVG has already changed its virus definition and is working again. But I have not received any response to my query from the other two. *

#100

Hi,

We have an issue on our Website Matomo with matomo.js
Avast (program security) detects this script as malware

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#101

I reported this false positive to Avast. They wrote back a day later: “Thank you for contacting Avast
The reported URL was checked… the detection was removed.”

Please continue to use the above links if you have a false-positive on your site URL.

1 Like