Your smartphone isn't listening to you talk about products in order to serve you relevant ads.
How many times have you said to a friend something like,"Boy, do I need a new laptop" in the presence of your phone and minutes later see an online ad for a laptop appear on your handset? Or you might have said to yourself,"I can use a new tube of Preparation H" and find out via an ad on your phone that the local pharmacy is running a sale on the medication.
To test out the theory that the things you say in front of your phone are quickly turned into online ads, theset up a new Google account on a Samsung Galaxy handset that was factory reset and a fictitious person, a 22-year old named Robin, was created. A fake Facebook account for Robin was opened to give the made-up person an online presence.
From Google's My Ad Center site you can decide which brands you want to see more or fewer ads from onlineaccount made for the fictitious Robin and searched for 'luxury car' and 'expensive bed' using Google Assistant and Google Search, ads for bed companies and high-end cars started to appear online everywhere. Google even created a webpage with brands that Robin might be interested in. You can find your page by going to myadcenter.google.com.
So it's okay to talk about condoms, toilet paper, Apple devices, and yes, even Preparation H in front of your phone without getting constantly bombarded by ads for these products. But be warned. Once you ask Google Assistant or Google about a particular product, you'll constantly be served up ads for products you ask about. Heck, it's the same thing with the Google Store.
This tactic isn't limited to the Google Store as other online retailers will often do the same thing. And it probably is an effective tool allowing Google and the other companies to ring up some additional sales. But if you don't want to be tracked by Google, this is what you need to do. Go to myadcenter.google.com and select Manage Privacy on the upper left portion of the display. On the right side of the screen, a button says.
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