IF YOU RECOGNISE someone familiar in a Google ad or recommendation from today, you might know them well.
In fact, it might even be your own face staring back at you from the computer or mobile phone screen.
That’s because the company has updated its terms of service, which now state that your profile name and photo might appear in Google products.
However, you can control whether your image and name appear in ads via the shared endorsements setting.
Google says in its explanation of the terms that it will take the names and photos from users of Google Plus, as well as information when you +1, comment, or follow.
So your friends, family and others may see your Profile name and photo, and content like the reviews that you share or the ads that you +1’d. This only happens when you take an action (things like +1’ing, commenting or following) – and the only people who see it are the people that you’ve chosen to share that content with.
One example it gives is that “your friends might see that you rated an album 4 stars on the band’s Google Play page. And the +1 you gave your favourite local bakery could be included in an ad that the bakery runs through Google.”
These are called shared endorsements, and when it comes to shared endorsements in ads, you can turn this setting off.
Users under 18 won’t see their actions appearing in ads or other endorsements.
What do you think of these shared endorsements?
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