Teresa Partain has a job few people know exists. She's a content moderator for Google's ads engine and many of her colleagues do the same work for Google Search. Their job is to make sure the results people see are accurate and not spam or scams. Google calls these workers "quality raters," but Partain said they call themselves "ghost workers."
"Most people — even at Google — have no idea that we exist," Partain said. "They don't know that there are human beings doing a lot of the work. They think that the software is magic and already perfect and doesn't need maintenance. And that's just not true."
But now they want to be seen. They've written letters to Google executives, held a rally outside the company's Silicon Valley headquarters and created a petition to demand benefits and better pay.
Partain isn't employed by Google directly, but by a subcontractor called Appen. And, she said, that employment setup is what has led to worker grievances — mainly low wages, no benefits and isolation from colleagues. Partain is one of at least 10,000 people worldwide doing this job, according to Google.
They work from home and even though they're employed by subcontractors, they're given assignments directly by Google. Partain evaluates the quality and placement of Google ads, while her colleagues rate the quality of Google Search results. Their tasks can range from confirming a search for "carrot cake recipe" brings up relevant results to making sure an airfare ad doesn't appear...
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