See what Google knows about you or your computer.

ivhere

Adept
Are you worried about what Google knows about you? Do you want to know what Google knows about you or your computer? If Yes then follow these steps to know the answer.

Go to http://google.com/ads/preferences on your browser and it will open the advertisement profile that Google created for your browser on your computer, which is linked to you if you use that computer and browser.

On the "Google Ads Across the Web" panel, you can see which gender Google guesses you are, which age it thinks you are, which languages it thinks you speak, and more importantly, what you are interested in!

If there are more then one interest click on "Edit" button near your interest and see what Google knows about your interests You'll be surprised at how much more Google knows about you and your interests, and now you know how the ads you see online are chosen to match your interests. You'll be surprised at how much more Google knows about you and your interests, and now you know how the ads you see online are chosen to match your interests.

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You could also change Opt-out setting to stop Google from serving Interest based ads to you. If you have already Opted-out of Interest based ads from Google you wont see any information.
 
Pretty creepy .... some of these interests are spot on.

Computer Components
Computer Drives & Storage
Computer Hardware
Computer Memory
Computer Monitors & Displays
Computers & Electronics
 
Interesting. Let's carry on this discussion.

In my case it's showing up 141 interest based ads on google & 32 interests across the web. They are all accurate and have often been of (extremely speedy) help as I search for a given product or similar type of information. I use G+, gmail, drive etc past many years, so I am not surprised. Does it bother me .... NO & I am not really worried.

Incidently, has anyone (especially after being made aware of this fact) decided to "opt-out" of this so-called monitoring ?

What perhaps is of worry is whether Facebook too is gathering all such information (although 99.9999% of the time I have NEVER opened any ads on FB). I do not have any trust in FB & its operational philosophy ?

QUERRY:
Has "Heartbleed" caused damage to anyone as yet due to this functionality of Google ?

SIMPLE PRECAUTION THAT I TAKE :
Do not activate / use Google wallet either through my desktop/smartphones - (where all credit card details are stored). I have chosen to live without certain things (there are some Android Apps I would have loved to buy .... but this payment method is what puts me off).
 
Since you mentioned facebook and google, they stalk me everywhere which is quite annoying- Looked at a cover for your phone on amazon.in? Checked out some G2 listings on ebay? Looked at some SLRs on flipkart - It will all show up on the side of facebook newsfeed soon after. It find it both fascinating and creepy to think that these guys know exactly what I want based on my history and can keep showing it to me whereever I go. Even right now on TE, above the text box I'm typing my reply in, theres an ebay ad with Edifier watchs which is what I was checking out yesterday.
 
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