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What does Google know? | Pad Patter 1.24

IntenseMagic

IntenseMagic

Some grannies cuss a lot. I'm some grannies.
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Feb 28, 2012
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I may be late to the game or behind the times, and y'all may already know this, but did you know that you can check to see what Google knows (or thinks they know) about you?
If you go to adssettings.google.com and you are logged in to your Google account (if you have one), it will show you a list of assumptions that Google has made about you. It's how they target your ads.
I just checked mine out and a lot of it is pretty spot on. They got my age right and the fact that I'm female. I also had things like cats, dogs, classic rock, metal, computers, flowers, online journals, teaching, outdoors, parent of a teen, and even digital art. But, there were also things on there that are way off base and kind of funny like anime, country music, and blues...none of which I am interested in at all. You can turn off anything you are not interested in, so those got turned off.

Have you ever checked out what Google assumes about you? Anything funny or interesting or just way off base?
 
Never checked it before, I’d say it got about 1/3rd right. Definitely a few wacky ones.....that I was rich, was interested in boats, was married and had a huge interest in driving and motor vehicles....none of which are true.
 
Wow, I was surprised about the information, everything was right, except the age, but I love it, because they took away from me 5 years, lol. however I turned off, I love my privacy
 
Lots of sports - I don't like sports.
Not a parent. Shh - just because the kids are now all adults, that doesn't stop making me a parent.
Stuffed toys? seriously?
Unwanted body and facial hair removal ---- what???

I turned off 22 things.
 
I turned most of mine off about a year ago. I still get some ads but only for local companies that I've liked.
 
I didn't know you could actually see these settings. I'm one of those weirdos who actually prefer that the ads I'm seeing are targeted to me. I get annoyed when I see ads that have nothing to do with anything I would ever be interested in. I really wish I could figure out a way for my desktop to know my correct zipcode when I'm browsing. I get really tired of having to correct it when I want to see if my closest Target or Lowe's has something and it thinks I'm 30 miles from where I am. :p

The profile Google had for me was kind of all over the place. I think it probably had everything I've ever looked at in any way, shape, or form. LOL Mine also said not a parent, but then had parenting and children's clothing as categories of interest? I went in and turned off 40 of the most obvious categories. It will be interesting to see how much difference it makes.
 
Mines off. I'm also one who denies cookies, so it doesn't know much. At least, that it's admitting.

Considering I use google for so many other things, it knows a lot about me. Just not related to ads.

Now to have my husband do it. His ads are so targeted, I have to talk him out of stuff!
 
bestcee said:
Mines off. I'm also one who denies cookies, so it doesn't know much. At least, that it's admitting.

Considering I use google for so many other things, it knows a lot about me. Just not related to ads.

Now to have my husband do it. His ads are so targeted, I have to talk him out of stuff!
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I also deny cookies and have an ad blocking software. So I don't see any ads anyways!

For some reason my location comes up as Cleveland for some sites even though the location on the bottom of my browser has the correct location. Ummmm, I'm 4 hours from there. Or I've been seeing locations for Minnesota lately. Not even close. A bunch of states between me and Minnesota!
 
HavaDrPepper said:
I also deny cookies and have an ad blocking software. So I don't see any ads anyways!

For some reason my location comes up as Cleveland for some sites even though the location on the bottom of my browser has the correct location. Ummmm, I'm 4 hours from there. Or I've been seeing locations for Minnesota lately. Not even close. A bunch of states between me and Minnesota!
Click to expand...
If you deny cookies, it pulls from your ISP. So, often that's not a zip near you. Sometimes it'll pull a closer zip, but often it's a further switch/router/etc.
 
I just looked at mine. It had my age range and gender right but then had hundreds of interests - some things I may have googled once.

I found it interesting to look at the assumptions but I've turned it off now.
 
bestcee said:
If you deny cookies, it pulls from your ISP. So, often that's not a zip near you. Sometimes it'll pull a closer zip, but often it's a further switch/router/etc.
Click to expand...
My ISP has its main offices right here in town. It is a local ISP not a national one. ISP was started right here over 25 years ago and has stayed competitive all these years because of being local. I can get service calls within a day whereas Spectrum takes over a week to get here.
 
I have 4 factors turned off and 204 turned on. I think I can say Google has no idea and is just throwing darts and guessing. LOL I don't even know where Google ads show up; I must be really good at blocking them out, especially since it appears they aren't picking from anything that interests me.
 
I'm a little scared to go look. :giggle

The only time I get annoyed with the targeted ads is when I'm shopping for Christmas or Birthday stuff and then ads start showing up for what i bought him! Eek!
 
Holy SMOKES! They were pretty accurate... although I did laugh that fitness and fast food were both on for me and right next to each other. And that's accurate! :rofl
 
littlekiwi said:
Never checked it before, I’d say it got about 1/3rd right. Definitely a few wacky ones.....that I was rich, was interested in boats, was married and had a huge interest in driving and motor vehicles....none of which are true.
Click to expand...
Well, aren't those interesting haha. Wonder how it came up with them?
 
QuiltyMom said:
I checked mine, and it was turned off as it should be. I’m the person who goes around to put all settings on private. I’m rather upset that Fitbit was bought out by google because I really don’t want them to have that information. We’ll see.
Click to expand...
I get that. But I did not know that Google bought Fitbit!
 
G.J. said:
Wow, I was surprised about the information, everything was right, except the age, but I love it, because they took away from me 5 years, lol. however I turned off, I love my privacy
Click to expand...
Lucky you...they were on my age but also added 5 or 10 years lol
 
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