Keep going: If you don’t use Google apps and services, you won’t stop Google from tracking you and creating a profile. Or, to put it another way, the only way you have to that Google does not collect private data from your online activity is to use a network that masks your traffic, say Tor for example; don’t identify yourself in services and just browse the internet like a ghost walking through a graveyard at midnight.

There are people who act this way, but the experience is not worth it. Using the internet without Google knowing you exist is tricky and has many disadvantages, so it’s more comfortable to let go, or without achieving it, try to find a balance in which privacy is even slightly respected. Especially if you are a Google user, something that has disadvantages, yes, but also a large number of advantages that do not need to be listed.

In short, Google is not called an Internet giant by chance, and since it is very likely that you are its user in one way or another, the company offers you several tools for managing personalized ads and thus the data collection that entails. However, it is also possible to completely disable this function and again the data collection associated with it.

How to disable personalized ads from Google

There is a novelty in this respect and it is a recent premiere My ad centera new section in the Google account preferences that until now only allowed you to configure a few parameters, including the complete deactivation of personalized ads, but from now on allows much more and may be interesting even for users who do not mind being tracked and prefer to see ads related to their interests.

My Ad Center allows for deep user configuration including selection options what topics and brands interest you and on which you prefer to see ads, or on the contrary, which seem sensitive to you and you do not want to meet. By default, these sensitive topics such as alcoholic beverages, dating, pregnancy and parenting, gambling and betting, and weight loss are allowed, but can be disabled.

In addition, with this new method you will be able, as stated by Google itself, to eliminate certain topics and/or brands on which you are no longer interested in receiving ads, for example, when you are planning a vacation or purchase that you have devoted to searches, read articles or watched videos. Why do you want to keep seeing ads for something you’ve already bought or done? Google is also not in the business of not showing you unnecessary advertising, and that’s where my ad center comes from.

However, in this practical article we will focus on deactivation of personalized Google ads and the truth is that it’s a really simple change because it consists of a few clicks. In a browser on your computer, sign in with your Google account and type:

• https://myadcenter.google.com

At the very top, you’ll see the Personalized Ads option, and it’s most likely turned on because that’s the default behavior for all Google accounts. All you have to do is disable.

Then go in this other direction and do the same with the « buttonpersonalized ads on websites and applications that cooperate with Google«:

• https://adssettings.google.com/partnerads?hl=en

Done. You have already deactivated the personalized ads that Google shows you and the data collection associated with them. Remember, of course, that Google will continue to show you ads wherever possible, and that they’ll often continue to have a lot to do with your online activity, whether or not you’ve disabled those options. But at least you do the best you can with the tools Google makes available to you. If you start looking at the amount of data of all kinds that Google collects…