Google's new Ad Settings page wants to be more transparent

Google has been trying to regain user trust for a while now, and it is making a move towards that with a new set of settings that allows you to further understand and customise how ads are tailored to you. The firm will also make “why this ad?”, a feature introduced om 2012 available to all ads that are powered by Google.

The new Ad Settings will show you just how ads are personalised to you, from things like Soccer which can be estimated from searches, to your gender and age which can be approximated from the age you add to your Google account, or interests like tech based on how much you google search MSpoweruser.

“Why this ad? is a feature that appears next to ads and both helps you learn why you are seeing a certain ad and gives you easy access to your Ad Settings. For example, if you want to know why you’re seeing an ad for a camera, Why this ad? might tell you it’s because you’ve searched for cameras, visited photography websites, or clicked on ads for cameras before,” Google’s Philippe de Lurand Pierre-Paul explained on the Google Blog, “We’ve now significantly expanded coverage of this feature; starting today, you’ll see Why this ad? notices on all our services that show Google Ads, such as ads on YouTube (including the YouTube app on connected TVs), Google Play, Gmail, Maps and Search. We’ve also expanded it to include almost all of the websites and apps that partner with us to show ads.”

With both features, users should have a clearer understanding of how Google tailors ads to them. You can access them from your Google account settings page.

Source: Google.