Ruth Talbot

News Applications Developer

Ruth Talbot is a News Applications Developer at ProPublica.

Porn, Piracy, Fraud: What Lurks Inside Google’s Black Box Ad Empire

Google’s ad business hides nearly all publishers it works with and where billions of ad dollars flow. We uncovered a network containing manga piracy, porn, fraud and disinformation.

How Google’s Ad Business Funds Disinformation Around the World

The largest-ever analysis of Google’s ad practices on non-English-language websites reveals how the tech giant makes disinformation profitable.

How We Determined Which Disinformation Publishers Profit From Google’s Ad Systems

We identified websites that collected Google ad revenue despite publishing false claims about COVID-19, climate change and other issues in apparent violation of Google policies.

Google Says It Bans Gun Ads. It Actually Makes Money From Them.

The tech giant has long boasted that it doesn’t accept ads for firearms, but a ProPublica analysis shows that Google’s ad systems served up more than 100 million ads from gun makers.

Do Police Give Students Tickets in Your Illinois School District?

Do police in your Illinois school district give students tickets for truancy, vaping, fighting or other violations of local ordinances? Search our interactive database to find out.

Look Up Nursing Home Staff COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

Now, users can quickly compare staff COVID-19 vaccination and booster rates across states and between nursing homes.

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