It also, consequently, makes the advertisements which they show to you far less valuable. So this feature is not widely advertised.
That’s how you start.
Welcome to the resistance.
YSK that Google and other big tech companies don’t give a shit about consumer rights or privacy laws and will still sell your targeted advertising data
Or…I could just continue not using google.
What? I use locally hosted searxng, ublock origin, librewolf, noscript, chameleon, libredirect, a massive no AI block list, and a self hosted pihole with unbound DNS resolution. I use yt-dlp with sponsor-block via a self hosted invidious instance and “subscribe” via RSS feed when I need to watch something from youtube.
On mobile I use grapheneos, fdroid, and tubular.
Wtf is a google and wtf is an advertisement?
I had a TRS-80 once. You hit the power button and it started. I used programs stored on audiotape. Simpler days.
You know what both of those things are.
If Google actually honors this setting.
They do. When enabled, they don’t use it to serve you ads based on those things.
They still collect and sell it. They just don’t show you ads based on it.
Google says it doesn’t sell your personal info to third parties. While you would be well within your reason to suspect this isn’t true, it is actually legally relevant because it means, as a consequence, Google doesn’t provide a “do not sell my personal information” opt-out link which would otherwise be required by California law (where Google is headquartered).
I think the Do Not Sell My Information applies to users that are living in California. So Google could just show it to them, and not to all the other users
It also, consequently, makes the advertisements which they show to you *far* less valuable. So this feature is not widely advertised.
I do wonder how much more effective surveillance capitalism-style ads are compared to ads like what DuckDuckGo has that are based on what you’re searching for right now, or ads based on the content being viewed. I’d personally be more likely to click on an ad based on my current search or content I’m viewing where it’s directly obvious how they know my interest, as opposed to seeing a creepy ad on a random website where they magically know I recently considered buying new shoes.
Assuming I’m reading the abstract correctly, it’s about twice as effective.
Go through all your settings: https://myactivity.google.com/more-activity
This. I thoroughly checked all of my account’s settings and toggled off about 15 switches related to history or data access. Not only that, Google can occasionally add new ones or toggle them back on, either through deceptive user prompts or underhanded updates.
It doesn’t prevent them from collecting anything or building a profile - just from invoking that profile at the time the ad is bid.
They just don’t show you what you look like to them directly all the time.
You still get some personalized ads, just not all of them.
Yea, but then you get an absolute fuck tonne of gambling or ai girlfriend ads because they will not limit their advertising scope.
You can use uBlock Origin (browser extension) to block all advertisements. Then in the event you visit a site you want to support, turn it off.
Doesn’t stop chromecasted videos.
SmartTube
Setup a Pi Hole for network level ad blocking.
That broke years ago. Even with adguard home and black holeing Google’s name servers they still get in.
Chromecast streaming sticks have locked in DNS settings, so a Pi-hole does not help there.
Newer chromecasts with android TV don’t
That’s unfortunate. Can’t say I’m surprised. Google is garbage.
Get an AppleTV, google sux
Apple is no better.
There’s ads on the Internet?
Every once in a while i reglimpse the other side of how humanity lives online (my video downloader thats most convenient conveniently doesnt have an adblocker, its a fucking nightmare). Its the stuff of slow suicides
It’s annoying but I take it as a sign that it’s working and marketing money is being wasted on me
Yeah, I’ve gotten some not so subtle anime tentacle porn game ads.
“prevents”
Turning off the targeted ads settings indeed prevents Google from showing you overtly targeted ads. It makes no claim that it prevents Google from harvesting the same data that is used to target ads
The joke is on them as I am the sort of person who does not see the ads. I mean I see them of course, but they extremely rarely make me interested. Like it is very rare that I see an ad and click on it. This the case on all platforms and I am not blocking my data. I wonder what % of people are like me as I cannot be the only one? I am not even saying that there could not be more ads I would be interested in, but clearly the tech no matter how advanced they say it is, is not very sophisticated as of yet.
I used to be the same, but I eventually got sick of seeing these constant requests to spend my money on whoever’s product. If I see a problem that can be solved with a product, I know tlwhere to find stores, and I’ll go look for it. I don’t need 45,000 attempts at my money in case one is what I need. So I block all ads, pointedly avoid sponsored results, and use my own brain to decide what I want, when I want it.
Plus it improves my experience on all services when the UI isn’t wasted on banners and games don’t play a video every thirty seconds. I haven’t yet figured out how to block real-world ads. Maybe XR glasses with a brand censoring mod lol
I think the idea is that you are interested in a topic, and so they show you an advertisement that says “Product A does X!” You might not think about it nor click on it, but maybe later on, you need to do X, and then you remember, “hey, Product A does X, I should check it out.” And then that maybe turns into a sale for them.
What’s an “advertisement” on the internet look like?
Wait, you guys are getting ads?
Why would we want less relevant advertising? This just seems daft.
To dismantle the machine. The goal is no ads. Fewer services, higher quality. Being a conformist just makes them ever more bolder. They don’t need to be calculating your toe nail lenght…
I’ve turned off all the history tracking on my google account for years. I’m sure somewhere in their data lake, the data exists. They just don’t make it available to see on the web. I think this probably because when presented with a subpoena, they seems to have the data. Shocking, I know.
Oh yeah. One of my probably unprovable theories is that the data they collected on me will always be floating around, I can just do my best to stop new data being harvested and, potentially, old data might be unsellable. Like when Daniel Radcliffe didn’t update his outfit for several months and paparazzi couldn’t sell the photos they took of him to magazines because they all looked outdated and therefore inaccurate
