How To Opt Out of Personalize Google Ads
Google is Watching...
Google is a company that’s built on data. Since its founding over a decade ago,it’s become one of the largest and most powerful tech companies in the world, and much of its success is due to the overwhelming amount of data it accumulates on just about everything. Google knows an awful lot about you. It knows your search habits, where you go, who you’re friends with, what your hobbies are, what you like to eat, what devices you own, and what you like to buy. Google amasses all of this data through the services you use, such as Google search, Gmail, and all of the other services they offer. Participating in an online world certainly has its trade-offs when it comes to your privacy. However, you do have some control over what Google sees, and one way to do that is to opt out of personalized ads that target your specifically.
Yesterday, Google announced some changes to their privacy policy, and the net has been alive with talk about what it means. We’re going to show you how to opt out of personal advertising, as well as take a brief look at what the new privacy policy means for you personally. Opting out of personalized advertising is very easy. If you’re logged into your Google account, follow this link to the Ads Preferences Manager. On the right, you’ll find a link to Ads On The Web. Click that link, and you should see a blue box that says “Opt Out”. Click that, and you’ll no longer have ads targeted at you, nor will Google collect information on your buying habits to use in those ads.
As for the rest of the privacy policy, Google’s new terms were created to unify all of their numerous services under a single policy. Formerly, each of Google’s services were compartmentalized, and did not share your information between them. That’s changed. Now, Google search can share your past search history with services like YouTube or Google Maps. If you were to search for something on Google, and then go to YouTube, you might see the same search terms appear in the auto-complete box. Google still retains all of your information, though, and won’t share it with 3rd parties. That includes your contacts that are saved on Google. You won’t have to worry about Google+ sharing all your friends with some mailing list. Of course, if you want to stay off the radar altogether, the only real way to do it is just not take part in the internet or social media, whatsoever.
