June 12, 2024
Google sent our an email recently to developers using Google Analytics. IMO, its has some far reaching benefits for normalizing website traffic privacy but it does require some education of end users to make the necessary modifications to their “my account” settings.
Search Engine Privacy Updates
In other words, Google has made change to restrict privacy but unless you go adjust those settings then your privacy is not intact.
There are no federal regulations on online privacy but more and more USA states are enacting their privacy laws and in 2024 the new entires are Florida, Texas, Oregon, Montana, and Colorado. The Colorado Privacy Act (CPA) will begin enforcement of its Universal Opt-Out Mechanism (UOOM) provisions.
These new tools and option also provide a method to insure Restricted Data Process (RDP) parameters are appropriate to your audience, if you are running Google Ads.
My Account Settings
On an individual basis you have several links you can visit, once you are logged into your Google account. The LINK ONE below is an excellent starting place to examine your data and make changes to what is collected along with payment setups and learning about who is seeing your data and what apps have access to your account.
LINK ONE: https://myaccount.google.com
Main Dashboard For Data Information In Google About You
On this page, you see “Data & Privacy” on top of page, along with other tabs such as Home, Personal Info, Security, and so forth. The Data & Privacy tab is crucial to adjusting settings that protect your anonymity online or not.
Its easy to review the settings on this page and make adjustments as to what data Google will collect or not collect about you and your activities.
Other features of this page include ability to preform a privacy checkup, listing of places you have visited (LINK TWO below), info you can share with others, what apps are ties to your account and data that is being shared, along with other options. On this page you can pause activity, data collection, erase YouTube history, and you can also visit the ad center preferences which is LINK 3 below.
My Account Activity
LINK TWO: https://myactivity.google.com/
Learning about your internet activity captured while you are logged into your Google account.
This page will display your history of what you have viewed or visited on the internet in three areas: website and apps, Timeline, and YouTube. The info on this page is linked to the LINK ONE above and viewed on the Data & Privacy tab.
My Ad Activity
LINK THREE: https://adssettings.google.com
This deals with ad content that is presented to you as you view search results or website pages showing Google ads.
Link to set preferences on how you want to see, or not nee, ads displayed by Google. The info on this page is linked to the LINK ONE above and viewed on the Data & Privacy tab.
To be clear, “Personalized” means that Google Search results are tailored for you based on your activity. Or, in other words, every site you visit is tracked and the algorithms build a profile about you and then present “personalized” results based on that they think is best for you.
When you log into this site you see a button about "Personalized Ads" in top right corner. Changing that setting to “OFF” means you are telling Google not to use your website browsing history to influence what ad cotent is presented to you why using a browser.
The caveat is you have to always be logged in to your google account for this Personalized Ad setting to operate correctly. For example, if you use another browser, Firefox or Safari, and you are not logged into your Google account then your “my ad” setting has no impact on your activity.
According to Google, and this is directly from their web page:
“You’re in control of your information and how it’s used for advertising. Your activity (LINK TWO above) on Google — such as sites you visit and things you’ve searched for — is used to deliver better, more helpful experiences across our products, including ads, based on your preferences.”
“You can turn off ads personalization altogether and also permanently delete the activity data tied to your account at any time with the data and privacy settings.”
Restricted Data Process (RDP)
LINK FOUR: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9606827
There are also new settings if you are running Google ads to make sure the Restricted Data Process (RDP) parameters are appropriate to your audience.
For example, to support advertiser in compliance of new developing USA state privacy laws you can now make adjustments to the tag manager and enable enable restricted data processing (RDP): restricted_data_processing.
You may consider reading more on website privacy regulations:
GDPR - the gold standard for privacy.