If Google actually honors this setting.
this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2026
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They do. When enabled, they don't use it to serve you ads based on those things.
They still collect and sell it. They just don't show you ads based on it.
Google says it doesn't sell your personal info to third parties. While you would be well within your reason to suspect this isn't true, it is actually legally relevant because it means, as a consequence, Google doesn't provide a "do not sell my personal information" opt-out link which would otherwise be required by California law (where Google is headquartered).
I think the Do Not Sell My Information applies to users that are living in California. So Google could just show it to them, and not to all the other users
It's a good theory but it isn't true. Google doesn't show it to anyone.
No, selling your personal info would be detrimental to their business model. It would feed their competitor's databases. They sell aggregate data, though.
Anyine else remember when google were legally forced to start asking you for your location?
This is that. Don't use google. Stop supporting corporations that openly tell you they're supporting not just the unfetterd harvesting of data but also use said data to support countries currently committing Genocide.
It doesn’t prevent them from collecting anything or building a profile - just from invoking that profile at the time the ad is bid.
They just don't show you what you look like to them directly all the time.
You still get some personalized ads, just not all of them.
It doesn’t stop them collecting and selling data, just using it to harasses you directly.
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YSK that Google and other big tech companies don't give a shit about consumer rights or privacy laws and will still sell your targeted advertising data
Don't have an account there. Block ads. Simple as that.
No, you don't need gmail. Every other E-mail service has also a web-interface that sucks.
Unfortunately the insidious fuckers got into "education" for obvious reasons and now i cant be a parent without a gmail account.
Nah fuck them, they can mail my disroot acct, or I don't have an email and they can call me, anything else send a note home with the kid, free courier. It's not like gmail is incompatible with email, add my addr to the mailing list and quit crying.
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Yea, but then you get an absolute fuck tonne of gambling or ai girlfriend ads because they will not limit their advertising scope.
You can use uBlock Origin (browser extension) to block all advertisements. Then in the event you visit a site you want to support, turn it off.
Doesn't stop chromecasted videos.
Setup a Pi Hole for network level ad blocking.
Chromecast streaming sticks have locked in DNS settings, so a Pi-hole does not help there.
Newer chromecasts with android TV don't
That's unfortunate. Can't say I'm surprised. Google is garbage.
That broke years ago. Even with adguard home and black holeing Google's name servers they still get in.
SmartTube
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It's annoying but I take it as a sign that it's working and marketing money is being wasted on me
There's ads on the Internet?
Every once in a while i reglimpse the other side of how humanity lives online (my video downloader thats most convenient conveniently doesnt have an adblocker, its a fucking nightmare). Its the stuff of slow suicides
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YSK you can not use Google and instead use a service with no personalised advertising, such as startpage or duckduckgo
This prevents them from using things like your browsing history, search history, or personal data to serve you customised advertisements.
You also should install an adblocker, on everything that has it.
Even if you do not use Google, if you don't have something like uBlock Origin (which I highly recommend), you'll still see advertisements on other sites which are served by Google.
"prevents"
Turning off the targeted ads settings indeed prevents Google from showing you overtly targeted ads. It makes no claim that it prevents Google from harvesting the same data that is used to target ads
It also, consequently, makes the advertisements which they show to you *far* less valuable. So this feature is not widely advertised.
I do wonder how much more effective surveillance capitalism-style ads are compared to ads like what DuckDuckGo has that are based on what you’re searching for right now, or ads based on the content being viewed. I’d personally be more likely to click on an ad based on my current search or content I’m viewing where it’s directly obvious how they know my interest, as opposed to seeing a creepy ad on a random website where they magically know I recently considered buying new shoes.
What? I use locally hosted searxng, ublock origin, librewolf, noscript, chameleon, libredirect, a massive no AI block list, and a self hosted pihole with unbound DNS resolution. I use yt-dlp with sponsor-block via a self hosted invidious instance and "subscribe" via RSS feed when I need to watch something from youtube.
Wtf is a google and wtf is an advertisement?
You know what both of those things are.
It's called a "hyperbolic statement", to appear incredulous to illustrate a point
I had a TRS-80 once. You hit the power button and it started. I used programs stored on audiotape. Simpler days.
😂
That’s how you start.
Welcome to the resistance.
I just don't use Google.
Go through all your settings: https://myactivity.google.com/more-activity
This. I thoroughly checked all of my account's settings and toggled off about 15 switches related to history or data access. Not only that, Google can occasionally add new ones or toggle them back on, either through deceptive user prompts or underhanded updates.
Or...I could just continue not using google.
The joke is on them as I am the sort of person who does not see the ads. I mean I see them of course, but they extremely rarely make me interested. Like it is very rare that I see an ad and click on it. This the case on all platforms and I am not blocking my data. I wonder what % of people are like me as I cannot be the only one? I am not even saying that there could not be more ads I would be interested in, but clearly the tech no matter how advanced they say it is, is not very sophisticated as of yet.
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I've turned off all the history tracking on my google account for years. I'm sure somewhere in their data lake, the data exists. They just don't make it available to see on the web. I think this probably because when presented with a subpoena, they seems to have the data. Shocking, I know.
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