Google collects a ton of information about you. Pretty much everyone who cares about tech knows that, but now the company is looking to make it easier to control the data it has on throughout all your various devices.
According to Wired, you’ll soon see a prompt on Google services that, should you opt in, allows Google to use more information from your account across services like Search, YouTube and more to provide better ads for you across the Web. While previously it would use data from its services to serve you tailored ads on those services, now it will expand this to AdSense ads across the Web.
You may wonder why you’d ever choose more data collection over less, but there are some real benefits. Mainly, you can control which kind of ads show up everywhere, across various devices and websites. For example, if you don’t want your significant other to know you’ve been researching a gift, this will prevent any incriminating Google-powered ads from showing up across the Web.
Perhaps more useful on a day-to-day basis is the new My Activity page, which mashes up your search history on Google, your video views on YouTube, your Google Now cards, and sites that serve Google ads. Speaking of Google Now, your history is divided into Now-like cards you can browse through and delete. You can also delete everything in a specific date range or by particular topics.
The My Activity page also links to other pages showing the data Google has collected, such as your locations, device information, music identification, and more.
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It’s a fairly minimal resource, but one that makes it a lot easier to control the data Google is storing all in one place.
Besides, at least Google isn’t forcing you to turn on its new ad-tracking. The company says it’s adding more information to My Activity, so hopefully it will only offer more granular control with time.
Via Android Police
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