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We’re all now used to the way online ads work: You have a quick look for a new watch one day, and then ads for watch deals follow you around the internet for weeks. It feels like an obfuscated, entrenched system is at work, but you have more control over the advertising you see than you might realize.
One bit of control you have is whether ads for sensitive topics show up in any ad space where the ads are served by Google. These ads appear all across the web, on news sites and blogs, and on any website that relies on advertising. They also, of course, show up in Google search results. The topics classified as sensitive are: alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, and weight loss. If you don't want to see ads for products or services related to any of these, for whatever reason, you can get Google to stop them from showing.
Bear in mind that you need to be signed into your Google account for these limits to function, and that the blocking is not always 100 percent effective. You might see an airline ad with someone sipping champagne even if you've blocked the alcohol topic, for example, but they're mostly effective and worth setting up.
Limit Sensitive Topics
Head to the My Ad Center page of your Google account in a web browser, and sign in to your account if you haven't already done so. You'll be met with a wealth of information about you, Google, and Google advertising—including ads and brands that have recently been shown to you on the web. It shows you just how comprehensive the Google ad machine is.
Click Customize Ads and then open the Sensitive tab to get to the sensitive topics list, together with some information about how the feature works: Google says these topics have been selected based on “extensive user research” and that more topics might be added to the list over time.
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All you need to do to hide ads about a certain topic is to flick the relevant toggle switch on this screen. You can hide as many or as few topics as you like, and the changes are applied right away. If you decide that you're happy to start seeing ads associated with a particular topic again, you just need to turn the toggle switch back on.
Of course this won't affect all the ads you see online, just the ones that appear in the slots that Google controls. This will include ads on Google search results, in the Google Play Store, in Google Shopping links, and on Google Maps, as well as any sites that partner with Google to provide their advertising (which is a lot).
Other Google Ad Settings
Switch to the other tabs on the same screen and you'll see there are various other settings you can tweak, which apply to all the Google ads you see. The Topics tab shows you topics Google thinks you're interested in, and the Brands tab shows you brands Google thinks you're interested in, and on both screens you can sort the lists by the ads you've seen most recently or the ads you've seen most of in total.
Next to all the topics and brands you'll see plus and minus buttons, which mean you can see more or less of a particular topic or brand. These settings don't hide ads completely, like the sensitive topics feature does, but this will change the mix of ads you want to see. For example, if you'd like more holiday rental ads and fewer television ads, you can make that adjustment.
Head over to the My Ads page and you can see recent topics, recent brands, and even individual adverts that have been served up to you lately. Again, these individual elements will come with plus and minus buttons, so you can tweak the Google algorithm to see more or less of each particular type of ad.
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There's also a trending ads section further down the page, complete with the same plus and minus buttons. Here you'll see ad topics and advertising brands that are trending across the Google network, so you can make changes here too in terms of what you see and how often you see it.
Finally, you've got a Manage privacy link. This will show you, to some extent, what Google thinks about you in terms of your age, gender, marital status, education level, and so on—all the information it uses when deciding which ads to send your way. You can also see (and, if necessary, delete) the online activity that has led Google to these conclusions.
Click through on any of these pieces of information to make changes. Perhaps Google thinks you're a parent and is showing you a lot of ads for baby clothes, for example, but you don't actually have any kids. You can also stop Google from using any of these bits of information to serve ads. To stop it from showing targeted ads completely (so the ads you'll see won't be tailored to you), turn off Personalized ads at the top.
