A little while back I put some Google ads on my site, hoping to pick up a couple extra bucks. Because I was enrolled in their AdSense program for this (that’s the name of all the Google ads), I recently got the following email from Google:
Hi,
We’re writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site’s privacy policies. You’ll also see some new options on your Account Settings page.
Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. “sports enthusiast”). To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network. As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the “sports enthusiast” interest category. To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310.
As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557 to ensure that your site’s privacy policies are up-to-date, and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009. Because publisher sites and laws vary across countries, we’re unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy policy language.
For more information about interest-based advertising, you can also visit the Inside AdSense Blog at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/driving-monetization-with-ads-that.html.
We appreciate your participation and look forward to this upcoming enhancement.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
When you start clicking through all the links, and reading all the FAQ’s, it basically boils down to this: Google is going to track everyone on the internet across every site that they visit that has Google ads. The only way they offer to opt out of this is to download some software from Google and install it on you computer so they can identify you as not participating.
Google has always walked that fine line between making really cool use of organizing data, and being exceedingly creepy. In my opinion, this take a flying leap over that line to the side where the 70 year old men at high school gymnastics meets hang out.
I know they do things like this already. I know that individual data isn’t all that useful from an advertising perspective, that they only care about the aggregate. I know lots of companies probably have far more personal data about me than I’d really care for them to have. But seeing that they want me to update the privacy policy of my site (and everyone who uses Google ads to update their site’s privacy policy as well), so they can track people, makes that one last little twig snap in my mind.
I have not intention of updating the privacy policy I have now. I quite like my current privacy policy:
Don’t be evil.
So, here’s my prediction. Over the coming year (maybe two), Google’s growth is going to slow down as people get more protective of their personal information, and Google asks for more of it. Maybe at some point some unsavoury news will come to light about a deal between Google and a country’s government (aside from helping to filter the internet in China), or some dealing with another major company to skew search results just slightly in favor of one company or another.
<political side rant>
I think this will gain even more momentum as the government gets more involved in more aspects of life and the economy. I think continued news coverage of bailouts and corruption, and the betrayal of tax payer money to fund this, will lead to more and more distrust of any large company. Especially those that have large market shares or who could be deemed “too big to fail” (which, in my opinion, means that the government has failed in the past by not enforcing anti-trust / anti-monopoly laws that could have prevented any company from being too big to fail).
</political side rant>
Accordingly, all the Google ads are now off of my site, and won’t be coming back.