Woman shares how to discover terrifying amount Google knows about you
A TikToker has revealed how to find out the amount of data Google knows about you for its personalised ads service.
Google is one of a multitude of companies that uses a user’s personal data to show ‘relevant’ ads based on interests.
In Google’s privacy and terms, it says: “Google may share information about you with advertisers, business partners, sponsors, and other third parties.
“However we only divulge aggregate information about our users and will not share personally identifiable information with any third party without your express consent.”
That means the company may share your data with other companies to bring you those more ‘relevant’ ads.
And a viral TikTok video shows how to find out exactly what Google knows about you.
The video shows Lea, whose username is leakalache, typing into Google ‘ads settings Google’ and then clicking on the top link called ‘Sign In – Google Accounts – Ads Settings’.
The window that then shows up is quite astonishing.
She has ad personalisation set to ‘on’ and just underneath that it explains how ads are personalised.
It says ‘ads are based on personal info you’ve added to your Google account, data from advertisers that partner with Google and Google’s estimation of your interests’.
The list just below that in the video shocks Lea, as it shows 18-24-years-old, female, three languages including Arabic and a range of what appear to be ‘interests’ in alphabetical order, including architecture, auctions, audio equipment, autos, vehicles and bedding.
She further scrolls through these ‘interests’ to show just how many are highlighted – and there are a lot.
The video has 2.5m views, 311k likes, 42.7k shares and more than 1.7k comments at the time of writing.
And most of those comments express sheer shock at what they found when they tried it themselves.
One user said: “It thinks I’m 45-54.”
Lara said: “OH GOD I TRIED IT THE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION.”
Seth Bush said: “That’s because you put in personal information when you make an account.”
Impatience said: “18-24, female, cars, fashion, advertising and marketing, computer science, home decor, horror films, cats and a lot of other stuff .”
KC said: “How does it know I drive a Nissan.”
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