Did you know you are not allowed to disclose your Google AdSense earnings report?
Did you know that you are not allowed to share the AdSense income report, as per Google terms and conditions? Read this article to learn more about the AdSense policies regarding sharing your AdSense earnings and report.
You may have seen several bloggers and webmasters proudly sharing their AdSense performance reports and statistics through social media and their websites. But as per their terms and conditions, AdSense publishers are not allowed to disclose click-through-rates and performance related statistics to others.
It is a common misunderstanding among many bloggers that sharing AdSense earnings report in the form of screenshots are allowed by Google. Some publishers usually strike out or fade only the CTR and publish the remaining information. However, if you read the AdSense terms and conditions carefully, you will see that Google allows you to share only the "gross payments to you" and not the earnings/performance reports.
AdSense terms and policies regarding disclosure of earnings data
Here is a relevant extract from the localized terms and conditions:
9. Confidentiality
You agree not to disclose Google Confidential Information without our prior written consent. "Google Confidential Information" includes: (a) all Google software, technology and documentation relating to the Services; (b) click-through rates or other statistics relating to Property performance as pertaining to the Services;
...
Notwithstanding this Section 9, you may accurately disclose the amount of Google's gross payments resulting from your use of the Services.
AdSense terms and conditions explicitly state that click-through rates are considered to be confidential information and probably that is the reason many publishers fade only that out while sharing AdSense earnings data. However, it has to be noticed that "other statistics relating to Property performance" are also considered to be confidential and not to be disclosed, as per the policies. While a special emphasis is given for the CTR, the general statement "other statistics relating to Property performance" means anything under the "Performance Reports" in AdSense dashboard comes under confidential information. This means, you cannot disclose or share your estimated daily earnings, AdSense page views, clicks, CTR, CPC, RPM etc.
It is better not to publish screenshots of your AdSense reports in any case. In case you really need to make such screenshots, make sure you do not include your AdSense login id, pub id, site names, URLs or any other identifying information from it.
Strictly speaking, disclosing the revenue from individual blogs also could be interpreted as disclosing performance stats and hence a violation of AdSense policies. However, this is arguable and many publishers consider it as a common practice to share the gross earnings from their blogs.
What reports can be shared publicly?
Google hasn't explicitly stated what information can be shared publicly except mentioning that "gross payments" from Google can be disclosed. Since Google allows you to share the gross payments, it is perfectly okay to share screenshots of the payment cheques you receive from Google, even though I personally do not prefer doing that just because of privacy and security issues.
Other disadvantages of disclosing AdSense income
If you make a good amount of money and share the reports publicly, you may be inviting undue attention to your AdSense Ads. People who have lost their AdSense accounts in the past as spammers may open a click-bombing attack on your account, which could lead to getting an unwanted letter from Google. Google expects publishers to do everything required to keep the account safe from invalid activities and disclosing the earnings could be interpreted as working against this requirement from Google, even though it is not mentioned in the terms of use or policies.Can Google disable your AdSense account for sharing your earnings
Of course they can. If you violate any of the AdSense policies (and for many other reasons), Google can disable your AdSense account. However, I haven't heard of any cases where Google warned or disabled any publishers for sharing their earnings data. However, if you depend on the AdSense income for living, it is a good idea to stay safe and avoid any violations of AdSense policies so that you can continue to enjoy your online income.
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In that case Google Team must check Harsh's report. Really it was nice to read that post, even though frankly speaking I read Adsense Rules many times but personally never concentrated on this point.
From now onwards, I think nobody will mess with Google regarding their income on AdSense and nobody will post it now owards, even those who were doing it earlier.