I'm sure it's the same sort of question as to whether using AdWords will affect your position in Google -- where the resounding answer is not one jot.
Admittedly, the Google Alert people aren't directly connected with Google, but neither, too, are the Digital Point folk.
I've used both Alerts and Digital for the past several months and, although I've done some moving up and down in Google (as many/most of us have done), I've absolutely failed to see any connection. Nor has my past-twelve-months' use of AdWords made any difference that I've been able to see.
Google is a law unto itself, as posts to WPW constantly maintain, but I've real difficulty in thinking it is "doing any evil" to people who are simply trying to monitor their SERPS. This is an entirely different exercise than any deliberate manipulation of them.
In any case, I'm fairly certain that the Alerts program has to be using Google's API facility with both knowledge and permission, because how else could there be a dependable basis for its reports?
Duncan
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