Google will soon use your comments, ratings and photos for 'Shared Endorsements' ads

[Shawn Knight]

Google on Friday updated its terms of service such that the search giant will soon be able to use your name, photos and comments as product endorsements for ads shown across the Internet. Content will be gathered from the company’s various online products including Google+ and YouTube according to the New York Times.

The idea is that using personalized product endorsements will make your friends and family more likely to check out a brand if they see you have good things to say about it. For example, if you follow a restaurant or give an album on Google Play a good rating, your name, photo and endorsement could show up in an ad for said restaurant or alongside the album.

Google is well aware that they are walking a thin line with this type of advertising. As Forrester analyst Zachary Reiss-Davis notes, the trick to any advertising like this is to avoid coming off as creepy to your user base and have them say things like, “I didn’t want anyone else to know that.”

The uptick for Google, however, is that they have a potentially wide reach across their varying services. It’s estimated that Google’s display advertising network is seen by at least one billion people.

The new policy, which goes live on November 11, will automatically exclude individuals under the age of 18. Unlike Facebook, users will have the opportunity to opt out of being included in endorsements.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/54315-google-will-soon-use-your-comments-ratings-and-photos-for-shared-endorsements-ads.html

 

[motrin]

I already said "no thank you"

when you get the e-mail click more info, then it takes you to the option to opt out.

 

[oldikes]

Google needs to leave me alone about using google+/adding my name to youtube.
There's a reason I don't want to, and its nothing to do with google, but its simply not happening.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Oh well that automatically excludes me. I post on neither.

 

[Vrmithrax]

I love how people seem to be foaming at the mouth about this on other sites... If you've put out a PUBLIC review, comment or endorsement on one of those sites or channels, that's what will be used. If you haven't done any reviews, nothing changes for you. The end.

Bottom line? If you don't want your public opinions used, don't make your opinions public. Pretty simple, eh?

 

[Jad Chaar]

I opted out. This is just creepy.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Oh well that automatically excludes me. I post on neither.

Same here.

 

[t3chn0vamp]

Here is how to opt out:

Follow below link and uncheck "Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads." then hit save

https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en

 

[avoidz]

Creepy. Google are getting as bad as Facebook for privacy settings. Time to shut down those accounts.

 

[khha4113]

Google needs to leave me alone about using google+/adding my name to youtube.
There's a reason I don't want to, and its nothing to do with google, but its simply not happening.

Google doesn't force you, you can opt out.

 

[avoidz]

But even when you say No to the prompts, Google keeps asking you, nagging you.

 

[oldikes]

Google doesn't force you, you can opt out.

I know. But youd think after saying "no" over 9000 times they'd stop asking me or trying to trick me into doing it.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Google needs to leave me alone about using google+/adding my name to youtube.
There's a reason I don't want to, and its nothing to do with google, but its simply not happening.

Yes I don't want facebook or google's equivalent... free to give them an endorsement of what I think of them forcing the platform on google account holders

 

[amstech]

After article upon article and leaks of Uncle Sam watching your activity, people are mad over this?

 

[ET3D]

Bottom line? If you don't want your public opinions used, don't make your opinions public. Pretty simple, eh?

That's like saying that if you say "that's a nice dress" to someone in public then it's perfectly okay to post a full page ad with your image as an advertisement for the dress.

 

[cliffordcooley]

That's like saying that if you say "that's a nice dress" to someone in public then it's perfectly okay to post a full page ad with your image as an advertisement for the dress.

And that is without paying you for using your identity in the advertisement. It is there way of getting advertisement materials for free while making a fortune collecting for the advertised item. We still have a right to keep our identity anonymous, especially when there is a buck to be made otherwise. If Google wants to use my identity and opinions for marketing value, they can pay me for the right first.

 

[Vrmithrax]

That's like saying that if you say "that's a nice dress" to someone in public then it's perfectly okay to post a full page ad with your image as an advertisement for the dress.

Well, to be fair, it's more like screaming "THAT'S A NICE DRESS!!!" in the middle of a store (you are on Google property, not in "public"). It's a location that you know is recording your every interaction, and that you had to sign a waiver to even enter and speak in... But yah, other than that, what you said.

 

[ET3D]

Well, to be fair, it's more like screaming "THAT'S A NICE DRESS!!!" in the middle of a store (you are on Google property, not in "public"). It's a location that you know is recording your every interaction, and that you had to sign a waiver to even enter and speak in... But yah, other than that, what you said.

I think that one problem is that people just don't see their conversations as lasting. When I answer you, I'm having a conversation with you. I don't mean to have that be recorded forever, in fact I won't refer to it ever again once I no longer feel like continuing it. Yet it will remain here forever, and TechSpot has a license to publish it forever.

I also think that the "Google property" idea is problematic. I know I need sign an agreement, because Google is publishing what I'm writing. That doesn't mean that I expect what I post to be published in ways that I didn't intend. In the real world, I might implicitly agree that the store uses a CCTV to check on me, but I don't expect that footage to show up anywhere else.

The problem with changing license is that I'm a hostage of Google. I'm already using its services, and while in theory I can say "I don't like it, I'll stop using these services" that would be a significant issue for me, so Google has a good chance of having me agree to things I don't like that much.

 

[learninmypc]

I've followed several links in various newsletters I get on how to opt out of it but quickly realized since I use neither my real name or picture of myself online, what the heck.