Google, Personal Information, and Star Trek
https://lauren.vortex.com/2017/08/01/google-personal-information-and-star-trek
Rarely does a day go by when I don't get an email from some outraged
soul who has seen on some wacky site -- or perhaps heard on a
right-wing radio program somewhere -- the lie that Google sells users'
personal information to advertisers. I got a phone call from one such
person very recently -- an individual who hardly would calm down
enough for me to explain that they'd been bamboozled by the Google
Haters.
'Cause Google doesn't sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to
anyone else. But the falsehood that they do so is one of the most
enduring of fabrications about Google.
To be sure, Google is partly responsible for the long life of this
legend, because frankly they've never done a really good job of
explaining for non-techies how the Google ad system works, and Google
ad relevance is often so accurate that users naturally assume (again,
falsely) that their browsing habits or other data were handed over to
third parties.
Here's what actually happens. Let's say that you work in warp engine
design and testing. So you're frequently using Google to search for
stuff like antimatter injectors and dilithium crystals.
Now you start seeing "top of page" search results ads from some mining
operation on Rigel XII for exactly the raw crystals that you need, and
at an attractive price with free shipping, too! (Yes Trekkies, I
realize that in this early episode they were actually referred to as
"lithium" crystals -- go tell it to Spock.)
But you wonder: Did Google provide my search history to those ragtag
and somewhat disreputable bachelor miners -- out there on a planet
that is so windy that you clean pots by hanging them out to be
sandblasted?
How else could that ad have been targeted to me?
The answer is simple, and you don't need a dose of Venus Drug to
understand it. (OK, happy now, Trekkies?)
The miners create an ad that is aimed at users who are looking for
warp drive paraphernalia, based on the logical keywords -- like
dilithium, for example.
When Google's ad personalization algorithms detect that your search
terms are relevant to that ad, Google displays it to you. The miners
back on Rigel XII don't even know that you exist at this point. They
didn't display the ad to you, Google did.
Now, if you proceed to click on their ad and visit the miners' sale
site, you'll be providing more information to them, much as you would
when visiting other sites around the Web.
But if you don't click on the ad, there's no connection between you
and the advertiser.
And you don't have to simply accept Google's default handling of ad
personalization. Over at:
https://adssettings.google.com
you can change Google ad personalization settings or even disable ad
personalization entirely.
So the next time that someone tries to fervently sell you the big lie
that Google is selling your personal data, tell them that they're
wrong and that they're a stick in the Mudd.
Be seeing you.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): https://www.vortex.com/lauren
Lauren's Blog: https://lauren.vortex.com
Google Issues Mailing List: https://vortex.com/google-issues
Founder: Network Neutrality Squad: https://www.nnsquad.org
PRIVACY Forum: https://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: https://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Google+: https://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
--- Impeach Trump ---
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