Google’s Ad Targeting under the new Privacy Policy
Google new privacy policy will be effective starting March the 1st. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) suggests to delete your Web Search History, and I strongly recommend to follow this advice because:
1) The searches that have been recorded in your Web Search History before March the 1st will be subject to this policy [1].
2) Advertisers could target ads based on your browsing interests and interests inferred from your Web Search History.
The Good Points
First, I have to say that Google did a remarkable job advertising the new policy: notifications are everywhere. I don’t remember any of the policy updates being that much advertised and then commented.
Another good point is that many privacy policies have been merged in one privacy policy. It is no longer required to have a dozen tabs opened to have a good view of the policy. However, you still need to have an extra tab on the FAQ page with the definitions required to understand the Policy. Google could have used the empty space in the right column to display these definitions (like search result previews).
The really bad one
So much for the good points, now let’s discuss the policy itself. The bottom line is this policy would allow advertisers target you based on your web search profile and other interests you expressed in your emails or through your use of Google services. And this list of interests can be combined with the list of interests they built based on your DoubleClick cookie.
Google does not need our Opt-in consent to combine your web search profile to your DoubleClick cookie information. Starting March the 1st, Google could adopt a solution similar to what is deployed by Microsoft to target ads based on your search interests, although a sentence in the policy seems to prevent such use of your data:
“We will not combine DoubleClick cookie information with personally identifiable information unless we have your opt-in consent.”
In fact, it means that your Double-Click cookie will not be linked to your personally identifiable information. So Google can not put your name in front of the list of interests they inferred from your browsing behavior and will not put your name (or any other PII) in the ads you see. Because your Web Search history is likely to be unique, it identifies you and therefore can not be combined to your DoubleClick profile [2].
But your search profile (i.e. the list of interests inferred from your search history) is unlikely to be unique and therefore does not identify you so Google can combine it with your DoubleClick cookie information [2]. I believe they could also include some the of search results you clicked on to retarget you.
Similarly, your age, gender and interests expressed during Gtalk and Gmail discussions (or any other interest that Google could infer but that you would not be the only one to express) could be associated to your DoubleClick cookie. If you have any suggestion to deal with these data, do not hesitate to share it.
[1] See Google Policy FAQ: “Our new Privacy Policy applies to all information stored with Google on March 1, 2012 and to information we collect after that date.”
[2] Google defines Personal information as information “you provide to us which personally identifies you, such as your name, email address or billing information, or other data which can be reasonably linked to such information by Google”.