Google rolls out privacy-first My Ad Center to users globally

The US-based internet search giant said users around the world can choose to see more of the brands and topics that they like and less of the ones they don’t, either directly from the ads or from the centre.

“Online advertising doesn’t need to be confusing or out of your control. Whether you’re watching tutorials on YouTube or looking up recipes on Search, you should have a say in the ads you see online,” Jerry Dischler, VP/GM, Ads at Google said in a blog post. “That’s why today, My Ad Center will start rolling out to users around the world to help you control the kinds of ads you see across Google on Search, YouTube and Discover.”

Users can also choose to block sensitive ads and learn more about the information used to personalize their ad experience and control it based on preferences.

Users can also turn off ad personalization completely from easy-to-find controls on My Ad Center.

The option to turn off personalized ads in My Ad Center applies to the ads users see on and off Google, and will automatically apply on any device where they are signed in to their Google account.

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“My Ad Center expands Google’s privacy controls to allow users more direct control over which data sources, specifically Web & App Activity and YouTube History, are used to personalize their ads across Google Search, YouTube, and Discover,” the company said.

In My Ad Center, users can see fewer ads in five sensitive categories, including alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, and weight loss.

Before, this feature affected ads shown on YouTube and Display. Now, it expands to ads shown on Search and Discover.

“We follow a set of core privacy principles that guide what information we do and don’t collect. We never sell your personal information to anyone, and we never use the content you store in apps like Gmail, Photos and Drive for ads purposes. And we never use sensitive information to personalize ads — like health, race, religion or sexual orientation. It’s simply off limits,” Dischler added.

Further, the company said that to give people more transparency, Google is enhancing ad disclosures with new advertiser pages.

“Users can access these disclosures in the new My Ad Center panel and see the ads a specific verified advertiser has run over the past 30 days. When not signed into Google, one can still control preferences in Ad Settings,” it said.