Online advertising’s best strength its ability to target specific groups of people, but Google has decided that one group of businesses can’t use its targeted ad system. The search giant on Wednesday announced today that it stop letting payday lenders use itsAdWordsplatform.

“When reviewing our policies, research has shown that these loans can result in unaffordable pay and high default rates for users so we will be updating our policies globally to reflect that, ” David Graff, Google’s global product policy director, wroteon the company’s blog.

Beginning July 13 , no company offering loans involving refund within 60 days of the date of issue will be allowed to advertise those loans through the world’s most popular ad platform. Google will also block U.S. ads for loans with an annual percentage rate of 36 percent or higher.

Wade Henderson, chairwoman and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, praised Google for its decision in a statement included in the company’s post.

“This new policy address many of the longstanding fears shared by the entire civil rights community about predatory payday lending, ” he said. “These companies have long utilized slick advertising and aggressive marketing to trap customers into outrageously high interest loans – often those least able to afford it.”

Liz Ryan Murray, the policy director for thePeople’s Action Institute, told the Daily Dot that her organisation was “thrilled to see Google take common sense action to help stop high cost predatory lenders from ripping off families across the country.”

Murray said that the institute still awaited awaiting new rulemaking from theConsumer Financial Protection Bureau designed to crack down on predatory lenders, but in the meantime, “we hope more businesses will choose the high road and cut ties with the industry.”

Payday loans aren’t the first product to be barred from AdWords. Google also blocked ads for illegal drugs, forgery products, misinforming weight loss supplements, and detest speech. The companysaysitpulled more than 780 million offending ads in 2015.

As extensive research has shown, payday loans are unbelievably damaging to vulnerable populations that rely on them.

The Center for Responsible Lending, which praisedGoogle’s decision, reportsthat the average payday loan carries a 391 -percent APR. The organisation also says that lenders often intentionally place storefronts in low-income neighborhoods to strategically target people who are least likely to be able to reject their word. This practise has been replicated online through targeted ad, according to civil rights consulting firm Upturn.

A survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 5.5 percent of Americans use payday loans each year and that the average borrower will take out eight $375 loans per year while spending $520 on interest.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau backed that find when itreported that four out of five payday loans are rolled over or renewed within 14 days and that the majority of those renewals lead to the borrower paying more in fees than the amount of money they originally borrowed.

Online lenders have proven to be exceptionally malicious in their practises. According to a recent CFPBstudy, half of online borrowers are charged an average of $185 in overdraft fees, and one-third of borrowers who are hit with a bank penalty have their accounts closed involuntarily.

The Internet has been a tremendous boon to predatory lenders, whose revenues havedoubledsince 2006 thanks in big part to their ability to advertise online and offer services across state lines, thus avoiding many state regulations.

Many of the companies in the lending business explosion Google for its move.

Manjush Varghese, the vice president and general manager of ecommerce at Ace Cash Express, commented on Google’s post that he was “extremely disappointed” in the company’s decision.

“I would love to know some of the facts and research you are referring to, ” he wrote. “I have been a long-standing, responsible advertiser on Google. Our prior attempts to engage with the policy group at G have been consistently rebuffed. I sincerely wish you had the inclusiveness to engage all parties in these policy discussions.”

Varghese suggested that Google’s data was “biased” and added that he would be “happy to share data with you that shows your decision will only end up harming consumers in the long run.”

Varghese did not respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.

H/ T The Verge

Photo via Taber Andrew Bain/ Flickr ( CC-BY)