You can now control what Google knows about you

Google knows a lot about you. So much, in fact, that it can show you personalized ads. Starting now, you can carefully control what Google shows you in ads by removing categories that it has “assigned” you.

This Google option, which can be found at this link, lets you see the profile that the company has on you, based on your online behavior and any data that you’ve given out: age, sex, and tastes. Think a category doesn’t represent you? (According to Google, I’m a man.) Or simply don’t want to be shown ads from certain categories? Just click on that category and then “Disable.”

In addition to this option, Google now gives you more info about why you see certain ads for its products, such as YouTube. If you click on “Why am I seeing this ad” within an ad, it will explain in detail why it’s being shown to you (because of your tastes, where you live, etc.).

Of course, these new options don’t mean that Google will stop having info about you, but at least now you can call the shots by controlling the profile Google keeps on you.

This option reminds us of Facebook, which a while back included a section with all the info it was storing on you. In the article “How to find out what Facebook knows about you,” we explain this in detail.

What do you think about Google storing so much info on us?