Google knows where you go, what you watch, what you like, and what you search for. But would you believe it if you were told, that
“Google knows what you think.”
Yes, Google is indeed spying not only your actions but also your thoughts! And that’s why you see ads popping up for things you are fond of, even before you search once!
Have you ever guessed how Google happens to be that smart? Have you ever thought, “How much and what Google even knows about me?”
If you did, here’s an incredible resource to answer all your questions about Google’s mysterious spying.
Starting Off
You can start by opening your browser and searching for Google.com. You can then log in to the email account that you usually and repeatedly use on your device and/or browser.
On logging in to your Google account, you need to visit Google Ad Settings on this URL.
Understanding Google Ad Settings
The website claims that Google, based on the details entered while creating your account, your daily searches, and buying patterns estimates a lot about your personality. Based on this data fetched from your account, advertisers partnering with Google, target you from time to time for personalized ads of varied product categories.
This becomes possible as a result of a single setting, “Ad personalization is ON”. Yes, you can of course turn it off. But the bad news is, you will still keep seeing ads that are targeted at a general audience.
Check What Google Knows About You
As you scroll down further, you will find a drop-down option named “Advanced”. On clicking it, you will get to see all assumptions Google has made about you.
- Your age: This data is fetched directly from your Google account and hence is always accurate.
- Languages you know: This data is a result of the languages you added to your Google account and other languages you might be using in Google services. The results usually comprise two to three languages including English, your mother tongue and your national language.
- Gender: This data is fetched directly from your Google account and hence is always accurate.
- Your profession: This is very smart of Google that it quite correctly estimates if you are a working professional or a business person. This result is based on the topics you constantly browse on the search engine, YouTube, etc.
- Your company size: If you are an entrepreneur, Google also guesses the size of the team you handle. This inference is drawn by comparing your signed-in activity with other people who have confirmed with Google about their business type and team size.
- Your education: This information is also estimated based on a comparison made with people similar to you. This information usually comes out to be less accurate. It is observed that Google doesn’t take note of your higher studies, and area of study.
- Your interests: Google, very exactly knows your areas of interest based on your searches, for example, shopping, movies, music shows, events, etc. This data is usually fetched from the non-Google apps where you sign in with a Google email address.
Apart from this, Google also knows your household income, if you are a resident of a city, whether you are in a relationship, whether you are selling a property or buying one, the desires you have close to your heart, the devices you use to surf on the internet, and the list can go on. And the most interesting part is, Google uses this data to decide the ad categories for the ads that appear in your feed. All this, by tracing your queries and searches. Smart, isn’t it?
Takeaways
Agreed, Google’s smart. But you too can be! Here are some key highlights you must take away with you from this space:
- Google traces your data, which is sometimes a lot personal, and sensitive. But, need not worry. Your data is safe with Google and is not sold or misused by any means.
- You can always choose to turn off the ad personalization. That way, Google will stop estimating things about you.
- If you wish to see ads, but of more relevance, you can go ahead and refine the estimated data and make it exact wherever possible.
- You can also turn off specific areas of Google assumptions if you consider them to be personal and sensitive. Example: Marital status, computer hardware, etc.
- You can opt to see fewer ads on topics that trigger you, for example, Alcohol, Gambling, Weight loss, etc.
Google is a mastermind in itself. And it’s no surprise, it knows everything about us, whether or not, we want it to. However, by using Google Ad Settings, you have got to know how and what Google knows about you and how by some means you can control it! Let us know in the comments, your experience of surfing through Google Ad Settings.
