Skip to main content

Google's New Ad Settings Make It Easier to Personalise and Turn Off Targeted Ads




  • Google has updated Ad Settings feature
  • It now offers easy ways to limit personalised ads
  • The company has also expanded its 'Why this ad?' feature


Google has updated its Ad Settings feature to make it easier to control tailored ads. Apart from being able to turn off all Ad Personalization, users have also provided an option to turn off any of the factors that they don't want to be used to tailor ads. Additionally, the search giant is expanding its 'Why this ad?' feature to all the Google services as well as partner websites and apps that show Google Ads. This means you'll now be able to understand why any specific ad is showing to you when you are on YouTube, Google Play, Gmail, Maps, or Google Search.
Back in 2009, Google launched the Ad Settings feature to offer netizens with a list of ad controls. The original model didn't offer plenty of factors that Google use internally to serve targeted ads. But as privacy is becoming a hot topic in the fast-growing world of the Web, the Mountain View, California-based company has now upgraded the experience on its Ad Settings by showing all the different factors that determine how ads are tailored to you under one, single roof. This means you can now see a list of topics, including Travel, Restaurants, Finance, and Beauty & Fitness among others, based on which you are seeing ads. In addition to seeing the topics, you can also remove them with a single tap.

Also, apart from the preset topics, there are different factors that Google uses to serve you targeted ads. These are such as estimations of your interests based on your activity while you're signed in, the information you add to your Google Account, and your behavioural information that company receives from advertisers. All these factors can now be disabled by going to the Personal info and privacy section of your account's Ad Settings."
Turning off a factor means you'll no longer receive tailored ads related to it across our services, and on websites and apps that partner with us to show ads, as long as you're signed in to your Google Account," Google Product Manager Philippe de Lurand Pierre-Paul said in a blog post.
If you turn off all Ad Personalization, Google says you'll still see ads but that they may be less useful to you; users will also no longer be able to turn off ads from specific advertisers, and finally, any advertisers or interests users have turned off won't be saved. Google will still show you ads based on general factors such as the subject of what you're looking at or the time of the day, or any other factor that is still turned on in the Ad Settings.
In addition to the updated Ad Settings, Google has expanded the 'Why this ad?' feature that will now available across all Google services, including YouTube, Google Play, Gmail, Maps, and Search, along with most of Google's partner websites and apps that display Google Ads. The feature, which was originally launched in 2011, mainly provide insight into why a certain ad is showing up on the screen. It also gives quick access to the Ad Settings feature.

"The new Ad Settings and updates to Why this ad? provide you with more transparency and control over your Google ad experience than ever before. With these improvements, you can browse the web confidently knowing that you have the information and control to make Google work better for you," the Google executive concluded.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Apple sold fewer iPhones but made more money thanks to the iPhone

Apple’s  first quarterly earnings reports for 2018  are in, and the  company has reported  that  it sold 77.3 million iPhones in Q1 2018  (which includes the holiday season). That number is down 1.24 percent year over year from last year (78.3 million). But despite the slump in sales, iPhone revenue increased overall year over year, up 11.69 percent from $54.38 billion to $61.58 billion. While predictions for the average sale price of iPhone units sold during the quarter ranged from $710 to $755, the actual ASP was $796 (compared to $694 in Q1 2017), which directly explains the increase of revenue despite the decrease in sales. That said, despite the record revenue, analysts were still expecting a slight increase of approximately 1.5 percent year over year for units shipped, not a decrease. My estimate for iPhone units was expecting a lot more iPhone 8 with an average pricing of $710. Actual ASP was $796. A LOT of iPhon...

Xiaomi LEX to launch as Mi Note4 alongside Mi MIX 3 on October 15

A few days ago, a  poster that revealed  Xiaomi  will launch the Mi MIX 3 on October 15 was seen on the web. Now, more posters have leaked and they also confirm the same date above for the launch of the Mi MIX 3 and that of a second phone too. The Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 is the device we’ve been looking forward to ever since it was officially teased by Xiaomi’s own president back in August. However, a second device called the Xiaomi LEX also surfaced online a few days ago. One of the posters reveals that the second phone launching on October 15 is the Mi Note4. This is the device originally known as the Xiaomi LEX. Apparently, LEX is the codename for the phone. The Mi Note4 is the successor to the Mi Note3 released in September 2017. Not much is known about the Mi Note4 except for a screenshot that shows it has a dedicated AI assistant button. Nevertheless, it sure should be a worthy upgrade when compared to its predecessor. The poster also has a col...

Airtel Rs. 499 Recharge Pack With 2GB Daily Data With 82 Days Validity Launched

Airtel  has launched a new recharge pack with 82-day validity and 2GB of daily data allocation for prepaid users. This new Airtel pack comes as rivals  Jio  and BSNLlaunched their IPL 2018-focused plans to help users stream matches online for the duration of the tournament. While not branded as an IPL 2018 special pack, the new recharge comes with higher daily data caps compared to the other prepaid plans the company offers.  With its Rs. 499 recharge, Airtel is offering bundled local and STD calls, free roaming, and 100 SMSes per day, along with 2GB data each day. This amounts to 164GB of 4G/ 3G data provided to users for the entire validity period, at a per GB cost of roughly Rs. 3. The bundled calls are limited to 300 minutes per day and 1,000 minutes a week, and are charged at 30 paisa per minute after that. In comparison, Airtel Rs. 448 prepaid pack provides 1.4GB data per day for 82 days, amounting to 114.8GB data. Similarly, t...