14 DAY TRIAL // In the following days, users will receive a notification informing them of changes to Google's advertising policy, which will be expanded outside of its domains.
Until now, Google has used its own services to collect a vast amount of information on all of its users. The company has used this information internally to create better products, to show suggestions or ads on services like YouTube.
The company, which is also the world's largest ad network, has historically relied on data collected from browser cookies to show ads across non-Google websites.
Google expands user data usage to external ads
In the upcoming future, Google plans to use data on how you used its services to show you ads across the Web, according to a Wired report.
This means that Google searches, the videos you watched on YouTube, and the games you play on your Android smartphone could be used to customize the ads you see.
We said "could" because Google is making this new change an "opt-in" feature. When Google notifies each user about the change, they'll have to tick a checkbox in order to see better custom-tailored ads.
Facebook runs a similar user privacy program that uses the company's internal data to show ads on the site, but its service is an "opt-out" choice, meaning that all users have been transitioned to the advertising settings by default, without their specific consent.
Blocking embarrassing ads will become much easier
Google's approach is more user-friendly, but also much legally safer because of the broader set of sensitive data with which Google works compared to Facebook.
This new section where users can turn on the ads customization features will also feature granular controls that allow users to specify what kind of ads they see, where, and on what devices. For example, blocking embarrassing ads for herpes medicine will become much easier.
Additionally, Google has also launched a new account activity & history page called My Activity that provides an overview of all the user's past activities, aggregated from all Google services and all his devices. Previously, each service had its own history page, and deleting usage data was much time consuming.
