Kind of like the Myers-Briggs test but much, much worse…there’s a trick that lets you see how Google personalises ads to you (aka spies on you).
The setting can be found here, and it’s linked to your Google account. However, despite it being part of Google’s settings, you probably haven’t heard of it until now, right? Well that’s why digital marketer Trish Kabob is here to help.
In a viral TikTok that has now amassed a whopping 16M views, Trish explains how everything you’ve ever searched on Google has been stored in their algorithm. Basically, Google can read your personality better than a Dolly Magazine quiz. In fact, Google might know more about you, then you even know about yourself.
@tiktoktrishkabob #stitch with @teenybee818 Google knows way too much about all of us. #google #ads #digitalmarketing #digitalmarketer #bigbrother
“I don’t think people realise just how invasive Google is,” Trish said.
“If you’ve ever thought ‘huh, this is a weird ad for me to be seeing’ there’s actually a website you can go to that will show you all of the assumptions Google has made about you based on your previous searches.”
Thank god, Trish also shows you how you can turn off ad personalisation, or even edit each individual ad personalisation.
I tried it and while it did get a lot of things correct; like my age, income, gender etc. There were a few things which definitely weren’t me at all.
Apparently I’m in a relationship: WRONG. I also like footy: WRONG and I like The Australian Ballet: Also WRONG.
Other people also had the same experience as me, which might actually be a good thing. If it was too accurate, we should be very scared.
“So apparently I’m married. I would love to meet my husband,” one wrote.
“Suddenly I’m a 44 year old soccer mum,” said another.
“Why am I so flattered that Google thinks I’m upper-middle class,” someone wrote.
Some people were actually sad that Google couldn’t guess them correctly.
“It makes me sad that not even my Google curated ads are accurate to me. No one listens to me, not even spyware,” they said.
Honestly, we should all be scared that Google knows this information about us. But trust Gen Z to turn it into a fun personality quiz instead.
