Another day, another checkbox that affects your online privacy. This time it’s Google and its ad endorsements, which could see your image being bandied about Google’s various services, giving your smiling approval to something you gave a +1 to or left a review for.
As pointed out in this article on gHacks, if you’ve never left a review or clicked the +1 button, then you don’t have much to worry about. However, it would be nice to know you can use these features without wondering if your name and face will pop up in Google’s search results.
So, visit this ad endorsement page and scroll down to the bottom. You’ll see a checkbox labelled “Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads.” If it’s checked, switch it off and then hit the Save button.
Mine was already disabled, most likely because I’ve been pretty strict with my Google-related privacy settings in the past. Hopefully, this is the case for you as well, but if not, it’s easy enough to rectify.
Comments
3 responses to “Turn Off Google’s Ad Endorsements”
I seen some people freaking out about this and calling Google evil & essentially accusing them of being Satan incarnate.
Honestly, it is already public reviews that you’ve willingly left. Considering how much free and useful stuff Google provides me with 24/7, they are welcome to share a review I left in the Play store or whatever. If they were writing fake reviews and putting them next to my image I would be upset…
But they are not…
That’s pretty much how I see it too.
Google has to monetise somehow. The golden rule of interweb services is if you’re not paying anything for the product (ala Google) then you ARE the product. In Googles case I’m OK with that. I place value on the services they offer me, and in return I’m happy to share some information. Especially when I find they do a fantastic job of tailoring what I see, to what I might actually WANT to see.
I use AdBlock in my browser to navigate the web at large, but I turn it OFF for the main Google search page because I actually value the simple, non intrusive text ads that Google serves up. So many times I’ve found out about other companies, products and services I had no idea about when I’m searching/shopping for something.
And Google I think does the best job of being upfront and communicating what it’s collecting and how it’s using it, and how to easily opt out. Unlike some others such as FB, Twitter, Amazon etc…