Live data from Hacker News

See what Google knows about you

google.com

21–30 of 103 posts

Re: See what Google knows about you

#21
post #12
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They appear to have nothing on me... Only feature on the page is the Opt Out button. Have I missed something? No idea why they'd have nothing, I am signed in on Google services all the time.

Are you worried that Google knows nothing about you? :)

If Google doesn't know about you, do you really exist?

Re: See what Google knows about you

#22
It's transparent but definitely not user friendly. When you opt out it uses a cookie so if your cookies get deleted you need to opt out again. Also, since opting out uses a cookie you must opt out on every browser on every machine you use. Definitely not convenient.

Re: See what Google knows about you

#23

It's transparent but definitely not user friendly. When you opt out it uses a cookie so if your cookies get deleted you need to opt out again. Also, since opting out uses a cookie you must opt out on every browser on every machine you use. Definitely not convenient.

It's buried at the bottom of the page, but they link to the "Keep My Opt-Outs plugin".

Just curious: are you opting out? Why?

Re: See what Google knows about you

#25
On my original look at this, Google had one of my interests as hockey. I've never shown any interest in the sport, nor have any of my friends, so I was confused. Upon reloading the page, "Hockey" was gone, although I had taken a screenshot before, and noticed a number of other preference had been removed, leaving a much better fit of my activities.

Prior to my refresh I had video streamining, photo sharing, and online video as my "interests" despite the fact I don't tend to use my computer for these kinds of things. These are obviously things I might be interested in (25-34 male demograph), but am not particularly. I wonder why they would appear and disappear like this? How often are the preferences updated (hourly? daily? monthly?)

Re: See what Google knows about you

#26
post #13

"Your categories: You have opted out of Google's interest-based advertising. No interest categories are associated with your browser." To opt-out just go here: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/html/intl/en/plugin/

I'm curious. Why do you want ads shown to you NOT be targeted? Unless you're using adblock, you should be seeing a whole bunch of crappy ads for fat-loss solutions, IQ tests, "Which way is this mannequin turning?", etc... (Disclaimer: I co-founded a company now helping companies target ads. People opting out won't harm me economically, but I'm really trying to understand people's objections).

As a consumer I'm with you. If google is going to be showing me Ad's anyway... I'd rather they target them for me. It's not like opting out means they don't have giant warehouses of data on me or that they won't show me any ads. I guess I don't see what the potential up-sides are to opting out.

Re: See what Google knows about you

#28

On my original look at this, Google had one of my interests as hockey. I've never shown any interest in the sport, nor have any of my friends, so I was confused. Upon reloading the page, "Hockey" was gone, although I had taken a screenshot before, and noticed a number of other preference had been removed, leaving a much better fit of my activities. Prior to my refresh I had video streamining, photo sharing, and onlin…

Very strange. Do you share your computer with others?

The change is probably due to caching. If your computer isn't shared, I'd blame Google's classification which isn't always very accurate. Best example: a page of photos of pole dancers was classified as "winter sports" because the secondary navigation linked to relevant content...

Re: See what Google knows about you

#29

It's transparent but definitely not user friendly. When you opt out it uses a cookie so if your cookies get deleted you need to opt out again. Also, since opting out uses a cookie you must opt out on every browser on every machine you use. Definitely not convenient.

How else could it be done?

Re: See what Google knows about you

#30

It's transparent but definitely not user friendly. When you opt out it uses a cookie so if your cookies get deleted you need to opt out again. Also, since opting out uses a cookie you must opt out on every browser on every machine you use. Definitely not convenient.

How else could it be done?

On the server side. Associated with your account.
Post reply on HN