Following the announcement at Google I/O in May, Google will start rolling out a hub this week that it says will give you more control over which ads it shows you and what data it uses to target them. Once rolled out, the My Ad Center hub will be accessible at: myadcenter.google.com or via the three-dot menu button on ads that appear on Google’s Search, Discover, and YouTube services.
According to an blog post from Google VP and General Manager for Ads Jerry Dischler, the options available include the ability to increase or decrease the amount of ads you see for certain brands and topics, to blacklist certain sensitive topics, including alcohol, dating and weight loss, or to opt out of ad personalization completely. Dischler gives the example of opting out of vacation ads if you see a lot of them after shopping for a trip you’ve already taken.
The My Ad Center hub also includes settings to control exactly what information Google uses to target ads. You can adjust which audience categories Google thinks you belong to (for example, relationship or education status). There’s also the option to tell the company not to personalize ads based on your YouTube history or web and app activity, without losing access to the useful features these settings provide when enabled, Gizmodo reports.
Some of these controls are not entirely new. The search giant has long given users the ability to influence the ads it serves for them by, for example, opt out of personalized ads or personalize what traits and interests it uses for targeting. But My Ad Center is designed to provide a dedicated central hub with these controls in one place, which should make them more manageable to use.
According to the search giant, this tweak applies to any device you’re signed in to with your Google account, as well as other sites and apps that use Google’s advertising tools.