Following Google’s unprecedented cryptocurrency advertisement ban put in place this past spring, the search engine giant has now revised their privacy policy, allowing for regulated cryptocurrency exchanges to place ads on their platform in the US and Japan starting in October.

Google’s original ban drew the ire of the cryptocurrency community, mainly because the ban, which was supposedly made to reduce the spread of fraud and scams, applied to all cryptocurrency related services, including fully legitimate exchanges and projects.

The internet giant is now following in the footsteps of other internet platforms, like Facebook, in partially revising the ban by allowing exceptions for legitimate projects, and more specifically, fully regulated crypto exchanges.

At the original time of the ban, Google’s Scott Spencer spoke to CNBC about the ban, saying:

"We don't have a crystal ball to know where the future is going to go with cryptocurrencies, but we've seen enough consumer harm or potential for consumer harm that it's an area that we want to approach with extreme caution."

Google has now released an update that states:

“The Google Ads policy…will be updated in October 2018 to allow regulated cryptocurrency exchanges to advertise in the United States and Japan… Advertisers will need to be certified with Google for the specific country in which their ads will serve. Advertisers will be able to apply for certification once the policy launches in October. This policy will apply globally to all accounts that advertise these financial products.”

Advertising is the main revenue source for Google’s parent company, Alphabet, who make approximately 86% of their overall revenue from advertisements on the Google search engine.

Back in June, Facebook instituted a similar adjustment to their notorious cryptocurrency ad ban, offering a new onboarding process that would allow for some reputable cryptocurrency projects and platforms to apply for advertisements. The social media platform, however, will not allow advertisements for binary options and initial coin offerings (ICOs).

Rob Leathern, a product management director at Facebook spoke about the lifted restrictions on crypto advertisements, saying:

"Given these restrictions, not everyone who wants to advertise will be able to do so. But we'll listen to feedback, look at how well this policy works and continue to study this technology so that, if necessary, we can revise it over time."