You can ask Google not to serve ads based on your browsing history, YouTube views or app activity. Photo / 123rf
You can ask Google not to serve ads based on your browsing history, YouTube views or app activity. Photo / 123rf
Google is giving you more control over what type of ads you see - and more power to ban certain topics altogether.
The move comes at time when the company - along with its big tech peers - is under increasing pressure from regulators and lawmakers worldwide (more on which below).
A gradual global rollout from today will see new customisation options offered through a new hub, called My Ad Center or via the three-dot menu on ads delivered via Google's search, Discover, and YouTube platforms.
Google's new MyAdCenter. Image / Supplied
Google says you'll be able to decrease the advertising you see from certain brands or topics (or, indeed, increase them if you're of a mind). If you've just got back from a holiday, for example, you can mute travel ads for a spell.
You can also switch off ads altogether on themes including alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, and weight loss (a feature that was already available on YouTube, but is now being extended to Search and Discover)
You could choose to blacklist alcohol or gambling ads forever, for example, or mute travel ads for a spell after you've just been on a trip.
You can also ask Google not to serve ads based on your browsing history, YouTube views or app activity.
And if you do enable that option in YouTube, you won't be penalised by losing other personalisation features. You'll still get recommended videos based on your viewing history.
Many of the changes - first flagged at Google's I/O conference in May - are not new, but MyAdCenter expands users' power by putting everything in one place and making it easier to tweak
The new MyAdCenter features will work on any device where you're logged into a Google account - including, for example, if you're using Google's Search or YouTube apps on an iPhone.
Google earlier announced a plan to phase-out third-party cookies (tracking software that is used to serve ads based on your browsing history) in 2024.
On a conference call with journalists about the new features, Google said it could not comment on what effect MyAdCenter would have on its revenue, due to its corporate parent Alphabet being in a quiet period ahead of its quarterly earnings (which will be reported on October 25).
Google's changes come after a move by Apple last year to require users to actively opt-in to activity tracking by any app.
The company has also faced scrutiny from regulators including Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission, which took legal action that led to Google agreeing to pay a A$60 million fine in August this year (related to lack of transparency over tracking - which in turn feeds search ads - on Android devices between January 2017 and 2018; Google said it had long since changed the problematic settings.)
Image / Google
Google - and Meta and its other Big Tech fears - have faced tougher restrictions on targeted ads in the EU since May this year.
And US President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on data sharing with the EU on October 7 which, will primarily aimed at security services' surveillance activities, will have the effect of increasing Google, Meta, Apple and other US-based multinationals' exposure to the EU's strict GDPR privacy regulations, which include various curbs on ad-tracking.
NZ's Office of the Privacy Commissioner has welcomed Google's ongoing efforts to give users more control over data, although its favoured "Privacy by Design" approach involves all tracking features being turned off by default, with the user selecting the ones they want to opt-in to.
