
What Google knows about you - udp
http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/view
======
nyellin
Google Search has bigger privacy issues. IP Addresses are anonymized after 9
months, but your search history is stored _forever_ in anonymized form. If you
have ever searched for yourself on Google, or for a unique set of information
that can identify you as the origin of your searches, then you have to trust
Google's security team and future lawmakers to keep your information private.

Yes, most people don't care, and I'm not any better. I don't have anything
incriminating or too embarrassing in my search history, so I use Google and
grit my teeth whenever privacy comes up. I tried DuckDuckGo for a week, but I
eventually fell back to Google.

Sources and relevant links:

<http://www.google.com/privacy/faq.html>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL_search_data_scandal>

~~~
wdewind
I agree that I could care less about all of this stuff, it's the search data
that matters. Imagine taking a look at a month of someone's search data, it
would be revealing (it might even be revealing to look back over years of your
own search history).

But as for the question of forever anonymization I think you have
misunderstood:

The data will not be traceable back to a single computer or user. The link
between searches is the IP address, and it would be pretty hard to identify a
single IP address without the final two octets (ie 255.255.255.255 ->
255.255). It definitely wouldn't be impossible (nothing is), but I would bet
it would be within the level of difficulty that many other more privacy-
violating things would.

Furthermore, my ISP changes my IP address very frequently (my guess would be
about every 48 hours), and even if it was static, I would not have had the
same IP for a very long time (moved frequently, etc).

The cookie is the only link between the IP addresses, once you've ambiguated
the IP's it's pretty hard to connect the numerous IPs one person would have to
people.

The sources you submitted were not very explanatory and have nothing to do
with Google, respectively.

<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2007/03/google_to_anony/>

~~~
nyellin
You are mostly correct. According to an Ars Technica article from last year
[1]:

* Google anonymizes the last octect of your IP address after 9 months. (So there are 254 possible IP addresses for each search.)

* The search cookie is kept intact for 36 months (3 years).

When I posted before, I incorrectly remembered reading that the search cookie
is stored forever. Thanks for catching my mistake.

Edit: Regarding the sources, I think that Google's FAQ deliberately skimps on
the details. I posted the AOL link because it is a good example of what can
happen when search data is leaked.

[1] [http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/google-
keeps...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/03/google-keeps-your-
data-to-learn-from-good-guys-fight-off-bad-guys.ars)

~~~
magicalist
am I missing something with that 36 months? from the ars article:

"After 18 months, Google anonymizes the unique cookie data stored in these
logs."

a 2.5 year old searchengineland article also says they use a hash function
using keys that are discarded every day, which means that search streams will
be 24 hours long apiece:

[http://searchengineland.com/anonymizing-googles-server-
log-d...](http://searchengineland.com/anonymizing-googles-server-log-data-
hows-it-going-15036)

~~~
nyellin
Urgh. I was severely sleep deprived last night and I am starting to feel that
I shouldn't have posted at all. You are correct about 18 months.

------
thesethings
OK, this was more fun than freaky.

It thinks I'm male (I'm a girl).

It knows about my horrible novelty YouTube habit (tons of humor/comedy/tv
comedy categories). #guilty

It thinks I have pets/cats. (Nope. but given how many novelty youtube vids
probably involve cats, not crazy.)

And yeah, lots of finance/tech/business categories.

For now, I'm leaving them all in and not removing.

And sidebar to those who say this isn't everything Google knows about you.
You're right. But this is just about ads.

The main Privacy Dashboard for account stuff is here:
<http://www.google.com/dashboard>

------
tatianajosephy
Funny... my listed interests are in business and tech (true), and I've been
identified as a male (not true). From Google: "Based on the websites you've
visited, we think you're interested in topics that mostly interest men." Ouch!

~~~
jrockway
I wonder what Google thinks about my searches for shoes :)

------
ck2
Oh the irony

    
    
      Google Ads Preferences
     
      Cookies are disabled
    
      Your browser's cookies seem to be disabled. Ads Preferences will not work until you enable cookies in your browser. How do I enable cookies?
    

This is why it should be off by default and opt-in only.

------
benologist
A better title might be "Some of what Google admits to know about you".

There's really no way to verify the sum of what they know is you like ponies,
especially when they have so much data to draw conclusions from.

------
markszcz
At least Google gives you a way to Opt Out =)
([http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/html/opt-
out.html?hl=e...](http://www.google.com/ads/preferences/html/opt-
out.html?hl=en))

Apparently they where tracking me.

------
Samuel_Michon
Google thinks I have a split personality:

In Firefox: Humor, Venture Capital, Computers & Electronics, Handhelds &
Mobile Devices, Internet Software, Operating Systems - Mac OS, Currencies &
Foreign Exchange, Smart Phones, Technology News, Dictionaries & Encyclopedias.

In Chrome: Movie Reference, Music & Audio, Rock Music, Online Video.

As my main browser I use Firefox, without Flash plug-in. When I need to view
video, I open Chrome, which has Flash built-in. That explains why the
information from the two Google cookies differ so much.

------
16s
I have no cookie and I don't want one :) they also complain that I don't let
them execute JavaScript in my browser:

 _You cannot view or edit interests when you do not have an 'id' cookie. Opt-
in to get a cookie. JavaScript is disabled. Enable JavaScript to be able to
edit your preferences._

------
barrkel
"No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far."

I use AdBlockPlus, Ghostery and OptimizeGoogle in FF to reduce the amount of
crap I get served, as well as to rewrite e.g. Google search results to remove
their link tracking.

~~~
zalew
"No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far."

Same here, but only adblock plus, and I have google history disabled. I've
used ghostery for some time. I also delete all cookies from time to time.

------
mkjones
I love how the first thing so many people do is post their results here, where
they can be associated with their YC handles. Opt-out privacy, I guess.

That being said, I suspect there's not a lot of variance among most of the
commenters on here, so maybe it's not that interesting.

------
thought_alarm
Apparently someone who's interested in "Superhero Films" has been using my
Google account.

------
blntechie
Am I the only one where it says to Opt In instead of Opt out by default? It
don't have any categories for me even after Opting in. I'm signed into my
account. Adbllock Plus working great?

------
p4bl0
I use Google on a daily basis and I'm always logged in. Still, "No interest
categories are associated with your ads preferences so far"...

Maybe it's because of adblock+?

------
tintin
And around 60 other companies know about my browser:
<http://www.aboutads.info/choices/>

------
izendejas
It seems to be machine-dependent? I remember opting out a while back at work,
but my mobile phone definitely shows me a profile, albeit one that isn't
totally accurate.

In any case, you guys should also checkout _Bynamite_. They've got this
interesting mission to give users more control over what advertisers see. I'm
all for that not just from a privacy standpoint, but also from a relevancy
one.

------
bitskits
Pretty accurate actually, at least for me.

I read the title of this post as a cliffhanger, promising a shocking ending,
but it doesn't really do it for me. I'd rather have them show me relevant ads
than random ones, personally. I opted out for a while but found opting in to
be the better experience for me. To each their own, I guess.

~~~
technomancy
It had American Football and Cooking for me, neither of which I can remember
ever expressing interest in.

It nailed the programming stuff except for conflating Java the language and
Java the virtual machine, but hey, even humans often make that mistake.

~~~
tkhoven
I wonder how much of that is due to a simple misinterpretation of some of the
sites you visit. For example, if the fairly recent article on Google's
"beatbox" (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1952356>) and my subsequent
searches led to my purported interest in "Arts & Entertainment - Music & Audio
- Urban & Hip-Hop - Rap & Hip-Hop".

------
rrrhys
It's probably just a generic one if HN is referrer ;)

Computers & Electronics - Software - Business & Productivity Software

Computers & Electronics - Software - Open Source

Computers & Electronics - Software - Operating Systems - Mac OS

News

Online Communities - File Sharing & Hosting

Online Communities - Photo & Video Sharing - Photo & Image Sharing

Demographics - Gender - Male

------
ximeng
Oops! This link appears to be broken.

I wonder if they know I've got doubleclick in my hosts file.

~~~
daxelrod
The URL redirects through a doubleclick domain. That's why it's broken for
you.

------
dmn001
Nothing.

I have 'google analytics opt-out plugin' firefox addon, as well as adblock
plus.

"Cookies are disabled

Your browser's cookies seem to be disabled. Ads Preferences will not work
until you enable cookies in your browser."

------
baxter
"Google does not associate sensitive interest categories with your ads
preferences."

Does this really mean "We know more about you, but we're not going to tell you
what it is?"

~~~
wisty
It means, even though they could figure out who is more likely to click on,
say, BDSM ads, they don't, because that's how classy they are.

------
scrrr
Same URL gives me different results on the phone and on the desktop.
Apparently Google doesn't link them? I'm using the same GMail-Account on both
though.

------
jonknee
It says "You have opted out of Google's interest-based advertising. No
interest categories are associated with your browser." Sounds good to me.

------
danudey
Apparently nothing - I have no id cookie. I assume this means I'm not tracked
at all? Maybe I've just never clicked an ad on this laptop.

~~~
ElliotH
I don't think its related to ads clicked necessarily, I never click them, but
my results seem to be related primarily to the searches I perform.

~~~
magicalist
according to <http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/ads/> the "interest
categories" are based on the sites you actually visit that have doubleclick
ads, not from search terms (though there's an obvious correlation between the
two, I suppose).

~~~
potatolicious
It's blank for me - looks like AdBlock Plus is doing its job.

------
program
"No interest categories are associated with your ads preferences so far."

Thanks to adblock, noscript, greasemonkey and Google history deactivated.

------
mattwdelong
All interests associated with me are entirely accurate. Well done Google, I
applaud you.

------
Semiapies
Odd - I wonder why it thought I was into "Home improvement/Flooring".

------
s3graham
I like both coffee _and_ tea! The introspection possibilities!

------
zelandpanther
Interesting...it can be nice tool : )

