How Well Does Google Know You?
A few months ago, Google made a fairly fundamental change to how AdSense works. The change was a move to what Google calls ‘Interest-Based Advertising’ (IBA), which is advertising with targeting based on a user’s interests (duh). This might sound like not much of a big deal. After all, AdSense ads always targeted on web page contents and people tend to look at pages they are interested in. If you’re at a sports site, you’ll probably see sports ads. If you’re surfing a political site, you’ll probably see political ads. No big deal, right?
Yes and no. That is an accurate description of the old AdSense, but IBA changed the focus from the page to the person. Google serves ads everywhere so they know a lot about where you go on the web. From that, they make a guess (a good one) about what you are interested in, generally. IBA uses this interest information as the core of targeting rather than the content of the sites. So, you might see the same old ads, but you might also see political ads on your sports sites and vice versa.
Kind of cool, right? But also kind of unsettling. I mean, how well does Google know you?
Pretty well, actually, but you can judge for yourself. Just go to their Ads Preferences Manager and you can see a tidy list of what they think you like. I just looked and my interested right now apparently are:
- Computers & Electronics – Software – Graphics & Publishing – Fonts
- Entertainment – Comics & Animation – Comics
- Entertainment – TV – TV Programs
- Industries – Design – Graphic Design & Publishing
- Internet – Web Design & Development
- Internet – Web Hosting & Domain Registration
- Internet – Web Services – Search Engines
- Reference – Educational Resources
- Social Networks & Online Communities – Blogging Resources & Services
- Society – Government & Regulatory Bodies
The comics one is out of date and the ‘educational resources’ one is a bit baffling, but not bad overall. Apparently, I’m a web geek, with a little civics on the side. Fair enough. And I can remove the education one easily by clicking “Remove.” I could also remove anything else I don’t like and I can even add interests if I want. I’m not sure I particularly want to spend much time tuning what ads I see online, but the capability is there.
Even better, if you are more concerned about your privacy than I am, you can opt out entirely. There’s a button for that on the Ads Preference Manager page as well. If you do this, AdSense will drop back to showing you ads based on the contents of whatever site you are browsing.
Personally, I do not spend a lot of time worrying about my privacy online, other than basic security of sensitive information like credit card numbers, etc. I am pretty much convinced that suitably motivated people will be able to figure out my interests regardless of how much I might prefer they not. Maybe it is a defeatist attitude, but it’s where I am at this point. Life is too short and I’d rather spend time on something fun. Your mileage my vary.
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