Google is testing a new system which will show more relevant advertisements according to the interests of the visitors to a site.
Thanks to a cookie, he can track all visits to a person on all sites that use the system of DoubleClick. In this way, it will be easy for Google to identify what are the main interests of users, for example if someone visits the sites mainly in music, sports or films.
This kind of tailored advertising does raise questions about user choice and privacy — questions the whole online ad industry has a responsibility to answer. Many companies already provide interest-based advertising and they address these issues in different ways. So they are launching interest-based advertising with three important features that demonstrate our commitment to transparency and user choice.
- Transparency – We already clearly label most of the ads provided by Google on the AdSense partner network and on YouTube. You can click on the labels to get more information about how we serve ads, and the information we use to show you ads. This year we will expand the range of ad formats and publishers that display labels that provide a way to learn more and make choices about Google’s ad serving.
- Choice – We have built a tool called Ads Preferences Manager, which lets you view, delete, or add interest categories associated with your browser so that you can receive ads that are more interesting to you.
- Control – You can always opt out of the advertising cookie for the AdSense partner network here. To make sure that your opt-out decision is respected (and isn’t deleted if you clear the cookies from your browser), we have designed a plug-in for your browser that maintains your opt-out choice.
To find out more about what Google is doing in this important area, please visit our Public Policy blog and Privacy Center.
