What do you think that these guys know about you?
While reading about their new privacy policy I ended up examining what they think my ‘Ads preferences’ are.
They have me down as –
1) Arts & Entertainment – Comics & Animation
2) Beauty & Fitness
3) Finance – Credit & Lending
4) News – Weather
5) World Localities – Africa – Southern Africa – South Africa
No surprises there :
1) I have children
2) They’re girls
3) I do internet banking
4) News? Who doesn’t?
5) Really!
You can view your Ad profile here
For more info on the revamped Google privacy policy, Telegraph article here, Mail article here.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Mine says cookies are disabled!
More fool you for letting them in the door so to speak.
Spousal unit’s alias is the cookie monster!
Hello Mrs O
Fool? Why?
I really don’t have a problem, perhaps you could ask the cookie monster to give us a quick pros and cons 😉
I saw this earlier today on the DT, but it seems to be mainly about targeted advertising which I ignore anyway. Should I be alarmed?
Evening Ara.
I don’t think so.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/guides/about-cookies
If as the BBC say it makes browsing easier I couldn’t care less about ‘targeted ads’ To be honest I’d rather see ads about rugby paraphernalia or motor cars than say knitting or crochet!
The unanswered questions I have would be does it slow down our internet speed and do they use bandwidth thereby costing us money!
Cookies, Soutie are a necessary evil. Many sites do not work if one disables them, or third party cookies. I do have a blitz on mine occasionally, but I doubt if they make any difference with regard to internet speed and bandwidth; it’s more a security issue, I think.
I’m more than happy to have “an expert” disagree.
Ara, you’ve more or less summed up my position too.
From the BBC website…
“So why the paranoia? The answer probably depends on how you feel about organisations – both big business and government – storing information about you. There is nothing especially secret or exceptional about the information gathered by cookies”
Yes, indeed, I must admit that I am sometimes uneasy about this joined up world of the internet, it can be open to abuse.
The only alternative I can think of is to go “off the grid”, and miss out on the many benefits.
I think you are being somewhat naive. Google is probably selling that info out the back door to all and sundry.
Heavens knows what info could be derived by a data mining company on behalf of purchasing organisations.
Take for example someone who habitually looks and buys expensive gadgets and declares a minimum income, what do you think the IRS would make of that?
Personally as a general rule of thumb, the less anyone knows of you the better as far as it goes these days.
All these social networking sites and search engines appear to be making far too much money out of their free subscribers, one has to wonder exactly how they are doing this and why are they not open about if it is not to our putative detriment?
I think there are likely to be far more benefits of being off the grid in the future as the totalitarian machine gets a firmer and firmer grip. Think GPS, mobile phones, instant recognition technology of body and car etc.
Funny how they can keep a grip on the law abiding citizen but not too good on keeping up with terrorists and illegal immigrants are they?
Considering some of these inventions were supposed to keep us safe from terrorists- a likely story!
Hello Soutie,
It is a kind of magic how Google tailors its ads (not an apostrophe in sight) on the browser’s habits. There really is a Big Brother looking at you. I find it funny as I “research” my tractor blogs and, lo and behold, a few clicks later on the sidebar there’s tractors for sale adverts.
CO, you make a good point. Imagine you decide you need an adventure. You go on line and look up a couple of airfares. You zero in on the price you like and the dates that suit. By the time you actually come to purchase, the airline will be ‘aware’ that you are probably committed and will raise the price for the days that you are interested in. By the same token, your insurance company will be ‘aware’ that you have been researching high risk holidays such as holiday skiing in Alaska or bungee jumping at Victoria Falls and will raise the cost of your travel or life insurance. Or so I have been lead to believe.
Google says “No interest or demographic categories are associated with your ads preferences so far”
How proud am I? No labels or data of use to friend or foe! 😀