Yahoo Launches Ad Interest Manager

Online services have a lot of information on their users and, despite most claiming that they respect user privacy and don't abuse all the data, it's easy to understand why many people but also government agencies and citizen rights groups are concerned about the increasing dependency on online services and the fact that most just ask users to trust them, but don't really offer any way for them to view or adjust what data is stored and tracked. There have been some moves in that direction though and the most recent one comes from Yahoo which has launched a tool dubbed Ad Interest Manager which enable users to review and control the targeted ads they get served by Yahoo.

"Ads tailored to users' interests make online experiences more compelling and user-focused, and the new tool Yahoo! is launching today will provide transparency into how Yahoo!'s interest-based advertising works," Yahoo! Vice President of Policy and Head of Privacy, Anne Toth said.

"Yahoo! is committed to providing consumers with increased transparency and control when they are online. Ad Interest Manager will show users what interests we think they have, and also let them edit and change those interests to reflect the most up-to-date information," she added. "Importantly, users who don't want interest-based ads can turn them off completely."

The tool is designed to be a central place to manage the ads they receive on any of Yahoo's many online proprieties. Users will to able to view what Yahoo has stored on them, information they themselves provided and also the information gathered in other ways. It also lists what Yahoo has determined are their interests. Not only that, the users will be able to remove the ones that they believe are of no interest to them, customizing their experience. Finally, users will be able to opt-out altogether if they don't want Yahoo keeping track of their interests.

Google has a similar tool which allows users to see what categories of ads Google has selected for them. They can also remove any of the categories or add new ones or completely opt-out of the program. Google has also recently launched a tool to keep track of the privacy options for many of its products. Yahoo makes the move as the US Federal Trade Commission is holding talks about online privacy and the possibility of a government policy on the issue.