YouTube recently decided to let users hide more sensitive ad categories to protect their privacy. Things like ads pertaining to alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, or weight loss can now be limited while signed in to a Google Account on YouTube so long as these have been toggled.
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Now, Google Accounts themselves as a whole are receiving what’s called My Ad Center as a piece of the “Safer with Google” initiative to place you in control of what happens with your data. Announced at the Google I/O 2022 developer conference, My Ad Center expands on the company’s existing ads privacy settings by letting you directly control the data used to personalize your ads.
For example, you can choose to see more ads from the categories and brands you like and fewer from those you don’t. Tapping the plus or minus button on each card will personalize this, and My Ad Center itself will be directly accessible via any ad you encounter, as well as from your Google Account settings. Unlike in the past when Google was largely in control of what ads you see and you would have less input into that process, My Ad Center puts you in charge of the entire thing on a base level.
YouTube’s sensitive ad categories also make an appearance in the new Ad Center, allowing you to allow or limit the aforementioned categories for your account. This entire experience marks a major shift in Google’s approach to user data, and it’s a welcome one. I’m sure there will be many improvements it needs to make over the course of its development, but I’m glad to see these steps being taken!