Google rolls out ‘My Ad Center’, lets users customise ad experience

Google has rolled out its sophisticated My Ad Center experience globally from today. Announced in May 2022, the privacy tool provides users with better control over the ads they see while browsing Google platforms like YouTube or using the Search and Discover features. (Google’s other products may be added later).

As the internet company generating the most money globally from advertising, Google's self-policing of ad practices has come under the scanner from privacy advocates. But the company has often said it is fine-tuning more options to users in terms of the ads they want to see.

As a part of the plan, Google users will now be able to dictate:

• Which brands and topics they like: the ‘sensitive ad’ category has been expanded to include alcohol, dating, weight loss, pregnancy, and parenting. Earlier this feature was only available for ads in YouTube and Display. 
• The amount of personalisation they are comfortable with for their ad customisation.
• These personalisation options can be accessed from within the new My Ad Center experience or directly within the ad itself.

How this plays out

Each ad will come with controls that allows users to like, block, or report, while also being able to specify whether they'd like to see more or fewer ads related to that particular brand or subject. The company is also adding another layer of transparency by showing users who paid for that specific advertisement.

From a distance, the My Ad Center seems to be Google way of letting users have better control over their data, but at this point, adoption could be an issue. It will be interesting to see, how many users take the time to engage with this feature to feed-in more accurate personal information while this sleek filtering tool still relies on online tracking to target advertising.