Google’s New “Ad Center” Gives Users Control Over How Ads Are Personalized

Google introduces My Ad Center, a new tool that will be launched later this year to give users control over what they get to see while surfing through Google websites and apps! Users can now customize their ads everywhere from Search to YouTube. The three-dot menu system will appear on the screen which is a one-stop shop for the user to interact with the ad in whatever way he wants. For instance, he can like, share, block, or even report the ad. It also opens up room for curiosity as the user can see who paid for this ad and why he’s a target audience for it. 

If a user doesn’t want to see a specific type of ad, he can visit “My Ad Center” to let Google know about his specific interests and preferences. In the menu, the user can click “Customize more of the ads you see,” and the new hub will appear in front of him. He can then learn more about how ads are personalized and how their data is being used. It is designed for those ads which appear on Google and its operated sites.

Various categories will appear on the hub’s home screen. Users can click on the plus and minus buttons to turn different ad categories on and of. Categories included are fashion, beauty, skincare, haircare, vacation, real estate, and more. If a user is not interested in seeing ads for a specific category like skincare, he can just click on that category to remove it. Similarly, you can add or eliminate different brands from the list of your personalized ads.

Other than topics and brands, it has also categorized sensitive topics like gambling, smoking, alcohol, dating, weight loss, parenting, pregnancy, and more. These ads might be beneficial for some users, but at the same time, they can harm other groups of users. For instance, if a woman is trying to conceive for so long, she might get pissed off by looking at any pregnancy ad. So, she can just eliminate this sensitive topic from her list. Similarly, if a girl is facing a PCOS issue, she might get disheartened after looking at ads for weight loss.

Google has also allowed its users to adjust their ad preferences before for which they had to go to the section of ad settings on the Google Account Dashboard. At present, those functions are included in the new tool of “My Ad Center” in a more consolidated form. It also has a big button at the top of the screen on the hub of My Ad Center that users can click to get rid of personalized ads altogether.

However, Google believes that majority of users won’t go for that extreme option. Personalized ads are considered to be useful just like any recommendation for movies, news, commerce, etc. Moreover, it’s the first time that users are given this option of controlling the ad content they are going to see on their screens beyond just sensitive ads. This way, the process of navigating the ads becomes quite easier.

The changes that will come along with the new tool impact the overall ad industry. Google also introduced the idea of topics earlier this year to know about the interests of its users. This took place after getting complaints from EU antitrust regulators regarding Google’s plan of depreciating cooking and using them in a different way to ensconce its power in the advertising market. According to this plan, Google categorized all the sites within 300 topics. It was a system based on topics that were being tested in March with other relevant privacy tools.

After the trials, Google also said that it would offer users new tools to enable them to remove the interests which are assigned to them based on their browsing activities through the topic-based system. My Ad Center, which Google has introduced recently, would also help the existing tools to add to the ability of the users in customizing the types of ads that they are going to see more specifically.

The thing to remember is that “My Ad Center” is in the development process. Any changes can occur before the product gets shipped to the audience later this year.

To Sum Up

Google is continuously trying to address the privacy concerns of the users by introducing new tools and policies. At the same time, it makes sure that advertisers get insight into the interests of the users without intruding in their lives in any way. However, while the tool is still in beta, there is hope that it will sort out a lot of issues users were facing previously.

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