Google to use your profile for advertisements, how to stop it

Tech giant Google has revealed through the revision of its policies that accounts of users of Google products could be used for adverts if you allow Google to do so through your shared endorsement settings.

The shared endorsement settings have been checked for every profile initially so you have to stop Google to avoid such an occurrence on your profile. This advert works by using your plus 1s (+1) on Google Plus, your good review of products or companies on Google Play but activities going on in your email are not involved.

Image: Google

These reviews can be shown as ads to many people and it also depends on your privacy settings. It could be shown only to people in your circles on Google Plus or everyone if you make your posts public. This will usually occur if, for instance, you reviewed a Google Nexus with a five star rating, your friend searching for Google Nexus could see your review among the search results.

Google has revealed that users below the age of 18 will be excluded from this program and they don’t need to adjust their settings. For those above 18 who would like to stop Google from using their profiles for adverts, you can go through the next steps below.

Scroll to the shared endorsement settings on your Google Plus profile.

To opt out, uncheck the box that states “Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads.” Click save and you are good to go.

One thing you should note is that if you opt out of the ad service, Google won’t use your profile for adverts but Google can still use your profile in Google’s services like Google Play.

This is similar to Facebook’s sponsored post where Facebook could use a user’s likes or positive comments as adverts for that page or company. Facebook didn’t change their policy before this step and it cost them money for legal actions.

I guess Google has learned from that by giving users an option to opt out which will protect Google from any legal action.

 

Posted in Google, internet