Can I advertise essay writing, fake documents, or spy gear?
Direct answerNo, if the product helps someone cheat, forge a document, fake engagement, break into a system, or watch another person without consent. Google groups those offers under enabling dishonest behavior. Meta’s Cheating and Deceitful Practices standard covers the same kinds of products. A study app, a privacy VPN, or a camera sold for a visible home install is a different ad — until the page starts selling the cheat.
Sort the offer
| What you are selling | Google’s published bucket | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Finished essays, fake IDs, drug-test aids, fake reviews or clicks | Products that help users mislead others | Do not run the ad. A “tutoring” headline on a paper mill still matches the example. |
| Hacking services, game cheats, cable theft, radar jammers, wiretaps | Unauthorized access or unauthorized changes | Do not run the ad. This is not a software-disclosure fix. |
| GPS, cameras, or spyware marketed to watch someone without consent | Tracking another person without authorization | Pull the spy pitch. A nanny cam sold “to spy” is the named example. |
| VPN whose ad sells unlocking a geo-blocked service | VPNs marketed to circumvent geo-restrictions | That marketing is the example. A privacy pitch is not automatically the same ad. |
A download that bundles a toolbar, hides what it installs, or ships without terms is unwanted software, not this label. Cloaking the page so review never sees the cheat is circumventing systems. Promising “$10,000 a week from home” is an income claim, even when no essay is for sale.
What Google names
Google’s enabling dishonest behavior policy does not allow products or services designed to enable dishonest behavior. The mislead-others examples include fake documents such as passports or diplomas, numbers that mimic national ID numbers, services that add clients as authorized users on credit lines, aids to pass drug tests, academic-dishonesty products such as essay or thesis generators, falsified clicks, reviews, or social endorsements, and VPNs marketed to circumvent geo-restrictions.
The unauthorized-access examples include hacking services, game enhancements and cheat software, stealing cable, radar jammers, changing traffic signals, and phone or wire-tapping. The tracking examples include intimate-partner spyware, GPS trackers marketed to follow someone without consent, and cameras, recorders, dash cams, or nanny cams marketed specifically for spying.
Policy: private investigation services, and products designed for parents to track their underage children, are outside that tracking ban. Best practice from the same page: do not show a student looking over their shoulder during an exam, and do not write “fool the system” or “get away with anything.” Violations do not suspend the account immediately. Google says a warning comes at least 7 days before suspension.
Credit-privacy numbers and authorized-user brokering are this policy, not a mortgage ad. Loan copy that is actually a credit product still has to clear loans and credit ads. A THC product is the cannabis page. A kit whose job is to beat a drug test is this one.
Meta
Meta’s Cheating and Deceitful Practices standard says advertisers can’t run ads for products or services that promote cheating or deceitful practices. The public guidelines include circumventing security systems and credential hacking, secret viewing or recording (spy cams, phone trackers, hidden surveillance), jammers and descramblers, vehicle deception such as license-plate obfuscation, odometer tampering, radar detectors, or traffic-light changers, exam or drug-test cheating, and counterfeit documents such as fake degrees, passports, immigration papers, or fake currency.
The TikTok Ads help articles retrieved for this page did not publish a matching “dishonest behavior” chapter. Do not paste Google’s VPN example onto TikTok, and do not treat a TikTok Shop seller rule as the ads rule. If the landing page is the same cheat, expect a rejection anyway, then read the live ads policy for that market.
Lines that give the product away
| Line | Why it fails |
|---|---|
| “Undetectable essay in 10 minutes. Fool the system.” | Academic dishonesty, plus Google’s “fool the system” example. |
| “Pass any drug test tomorrow.” | Named by Google and by Meta’s exam-or-drug-test line. |
| “1,000 Instagram reviews, delivered.” | Google names falsified reviews and social endorsements. |
| “See their texts. They’ll never know.” | Unauthorized tracking. The parent-and-child exception does not cover this. |
Setup workflow
- Name the product: finished academic work, a fake document, a drug-test aid, fake clicks or reviews, a hack or cheat, or a device whose pitch is secret surveillance.
- If it is one of those, stop. A softer headline does not create an allowance.
- If it is a normal VPN, camera, or study tool, read the landing page for “fool the system,” geo-unlock, exam-cheating, or spy-on-someone language. Google treats that pitch as the violation.
- Do not use an image of someone cheating an exam, even around an otherwise ordinary product.
- A disapproval under this Google policy gets a warning at least 7 days before suspension. Edit the offer. Do not open a second account to keep the same page running.
Frequently asked questions
Can I advertise an essay or thesis generator?
No on Google. The enabling-dishonest-behavior policy names services or products that enable academic dishonesty, including essay or thesis generators. Meta’s Cheating and Deceitful Practices standard says advertisers can’t run ads that enable people to cheat on exams. Rewriting the headline as “study help” does not change a page that sells a finished paper.
Is every VPN banned?
Google’s example is VPNs marketed to circumvent geo-restrictions, not a privacy VPN whose ad and page do not sell location dodging. If the landing page tells people to unlock a country-blocked catalog, reviewers can still apply the example. Check the page, not only the headline.
Can parents advertise a tracker for their child?
Google’s policy says the unauthorized-tracking ban does not include private investigation services, or products designed for parents to track or monitor their underage children. An ad that tells someone to track a partner, employee, or other adult without consent is the banned example, not that parent exception.
Sources
Platform lists of examples are non-exhaustive and change. This reading is as of September 23, 2026. It is not legal advice.
Read the page, not just the headline
LaunchGuarding checks the creative and the destination, which is where a “study tool” often turns into a paper mill.