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