We’ve all wondered what people think of us. Do you think our jokes are funny? Are our stories fascinating or unbearably arrogant? The truth is, we may never know. However, as a consolation prize, we can all find out exactly what Google thinks of us without potentially awkward conversations.
It is a well-known fact that a technology company monitors your browsing habits to take a picture of you and then uses that portrait to show you ads that may interest you as you search the web, watch videos on YouTube, or find your own. way to find Google Maps at home. What is not known, however, is how easy it is for you to see this profile for yourself and to opt out of some or all of the company’s data collection processes.
Decide how much you care
Google Data Collection is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, personalized ads mean you don’t have to see banners and videos promoting products that you find boring or useless and you would never buy. For example, unless you’re a parent and interested in children, you won’t see ads promoting strollers and diapers. On the other hand, personalized ads work as targeted campaigns designed to engage and consume you as much as possible – the more you spend, the more money Google and other advertisers make.
[Related: How to protect your smartphone privacy]
You may like the convenience of a large technology company that knows your ways, but if you want to regain privacy, take a minute to tell Google what it may and may not know about you.
Find out what Google knows about you
Get started by logging in directly to your Google Account. On the website of one of the company’s services, click or tap your avatar on it – usually in the upper right corner of the screen – and go to Manage your Google account. Once you’re there, select Data Privacy, scroll down, and under Ad Settings, go to Customize Ads.
By default, you’ll see the radio-enabled radio check box, which means Google uses your data to refine the range of ads you see on your services. But before you touch the switch to turn it off completely, don’t hesitate to scroll down and look at the categories the main G uses to describe you and how accurate they are.
The first big ones are age, gender and language. Tap or click one of them if you want to update or administer it. The last of these three descriptors allows you to add the languages you speak, or disable the feature to prevent Google from automatically adding more languages in the future based on what you read or type. As you get older, the platform will prompt you to enter your birthday if you haven’t already. However, if the company already has this information, there is no way to remove it, but you can add it.
[Related: The government won’t protect your internet privacy, so here’s how to do it yourself]
The following categories are interests that the platform thinks you have, including the types of news you are interested in and the sports, movies, and hobbies you enjoy. Don’t expect them to be very accurate or talk too much about you. Google can mistake many of them, and they can be so random that they’re funny. For example, according to Google, I’m a man who is interested in football, classical music and martial arts. Well, as a woman who firmly believes that football is football, can’t tell Bach apart from Mozart and has no idea what MMA means, I find it all so much fun.
If you prefer Google to be confused about what you’re really interested in, you may want to leave them as they are. However, if you want to correct this information, you can give up your interests altogether by clicking and selecting Exclude. You do not have the ability to edit them. If you want to disable everything in bulk, you can scroll up and turn off the radio button next to Customize ads.
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