Turning off the Targets.
As we discuss advertising search industry, we take a deeper look into the emergence of new trends in online and media advertising markets. The fairly new term of ‘sponsored search markets’ relates the online behavior of the individual to maximizing the potential to cater advertisements to personal preferences and relevance. The article “How to beat Google’s personalized ads” by Kim Komando, tries to subdue the tech giant’s ad technology by informing users how to turn off Google’s personalized ads.
Google chooses to charge businesses by clicks on each ad page. This means that Google uses the personal data from your Google account to manipulate the ads to show users ads that are most likely to appeal to them. The company does this by incorporating each user’s search history, profile updates, Google Calendar appointments, YouTube preferences and more to create a digital profile of each users likes and preferences and shows ads that will be more appealing (and likely to increase revenue by clicking). The article recognizes that for some users this is a positive, this system works because many users like seeing things that are relevant to them, and enjoy the personalized online experience. For other users, the commercial use of private information can be daunting. By informing users how to turn off this function, the article shows how to prohibit the search engine from using your individual profile to target ads.
Although the latter may mitigate privacy concerns for many individuals who are wary of the growing usage of personal information to increase revenue, this brings up the growing ethical concern for using private information for commercial purposes and applicable difference in earnings, toggling this preference off would propose. As people become more aware of their susceptibility to online targeting, time will tell if there will be a likewise increase in policy awareness for cyber-safety regulation, and if Google will have to amend their algorithm for charging per click if they are forced toward ad randomization.