The folk at Google are changing their Privacy Policies and seemed keen that I read some marketing guff they had prepared to make these changes seem to be both reasonable and for my benefit (despite neither being the likely reality). Within the Overview they made mention of their Ads Preferences Manager, of which I had been previously unaware, so I decided to check it out.
It would seem that my preferences for advertisements delivered via Google products are derived from my on-line behaviour. Many of these are at least plausibly linked to reality, and they have correctly deduced that I am a man. However, rather distressingly, Google has decided that my age is 65+. 65+! Yes, to Google I am already a pensioner.
I haven’t noticed a lot of ads for walk-in baths or funeral insurance (though, on the plus side, no salesman has called) being delivered to my browser. However, perhaps I just missed them as I tend to ignore advertisements wherever possible (or maybe I’m becoming forgetful given my advanced on-line age).
I eagerly await my free bus pass!
I wouldn’t be terribly concerned about them just adding years to your age. They’ve done that to me, too, but have also changed my gender. Obviously “crafts – fiber [sic] and textile arts” combined with “puzzles and brainteasers” points to my being male. That’s just my pc at the office. I wonder what the one at home has concluded.
A few. A few! They’ve added whole decades.
Though, I am perhaps not as metrosexual as I might have thought. I’ll have to think of some searches to boost my perceived familiarity with the distaff…