Google’s Ads Personalization Option
There is no hiding from the fact that Google tracks us. IT tracks us on every possible website that it can. All of this, with a sole purpose of serving better ads. So I received a notification from google yesterday about some Ads personalization Option (Settings). It took me to this page where I was offered some choices related to the ads I see. The first thing that popped up was this.
If there was any doubt left, Google just cleared it for you. Google tracks you down to understand what you like. And then serves you ads accordingly. Though what’s interesting is that Google now offers you an option to disable ad personalization. I instantly tried to turn that switch off to see what Google would do. As I tried to opt out of Google’s ad personalization option I was prompted with the following alert.
So if I turn this off, I will stop seeing ads based on the data that Google has about me. But it makes no mention of whether Google will stop tracking me. Also, I will continue to see the same amount of ads. The only difference being that they will have lesser relevance to my internet activity.
If you remember Mark Zuckerberg’s Capitol Hill hearing, he very clearly mentioned that Facebook collects data for showing relevant ads. He also said that Facebook would allow users to opt out of sharing their data soon. Though Facebook hasn’t acted upon it, this step by Google looks like a step in the right direction.
Conclusion
In my honest opinion, the option to opt out of Google’s ad personalization looks like a very superficial assurance. They never said anything about not collection out data. They just won’t use it on us. The fact that Google will still have my data anyways makes this whole ad personalization feel useless. I mean, if you are collecting my data I’d rather make use of it.
What do you guys think about this move by Google? Do let me know in the comment section below.
