Google Assistant may promote advertisers without telling you about it

Google’s voice-recognition virtual assistant, Google Assistant, can do a lot now. It can be your personal interpreter, it can find you the best route home, and it can even donate to your favorite charity.

One thing Google Assistant won’t do, however, is disclose when its potentially recommending you a company advertising with Google.

When Google Assistant users ask their Google Home or Android device to help them find a local service provider, the search giant pulls its recommendations from a pre-approved database of businesses that are part of the Google Guarantee program.

This means that when users ask Google Assistant to recommend a local plumber or house cleaner, they're being given results based on a businesses' membership in the Google Guarantee program and not based on the best or closest provider.

While there is no cost associated with joining Google Guarantee, which also checks to make sure the local business is licensed and insured, the company requires membership to the program in order for a service business to run local advertisements on Google.

According to Reuters, Google claims that these results -- shared vocally through Google Assistant -- are not tagged as an ad or sponsored content because the company “isn’t paid for these results.” While it is technically true that a business hasn’t paid for this specific recommendation from Google, the program where this database is derived from is explicitly tied to Google Ads.

Google Assistant also recommends businesses through local service search partners such as HomeAdvisor and Porch, which can charge fees to businesses for custom leads. Reuters points out that Google does not disclose this with Assistant either.

Voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon’s Alexa, and Apple’s Siri, are fairly new consumer-facing technology. But, while the tech may be new, the guidelines for these industries are not. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which works to stop deceptive business practices and protect consumers, has made this clear.

"Regardless of the precise form search may take in the future, the long-standing principle of making advertising distinguishable from natural results will remain applicable," wrote the FTC in a 2013 letter to search engine companies. Google Assistant would seem like it certainly falls under this new form of search.