Google is watching you, but their binoculars suck.
It's no secret that I love Google products. In fact, I recently sent an email that ended with the sentence "Have you accepted the love of Google into your heart?" I opt out of some of their advertising features, but otherwise let them data mine to their heart's content, because they use they data to make some genuinely cool shit. Yes, they will probably take over the world someday, but I suspect that they will at least be benign overlords. So I was disappointed today when I checked my personalized advertising settings. They got that I am into content management systems and vegetables, which is true. They also seem to believe that I am 35, male, and into classic rock.
WTF, Google? You have my name, real birthday, and a copy of my entire music library! Also most of my email for the past 8 years, all the blog feeds I read, and my search history. Girls never do searches for programming bugs, apparently.
You can see who Google thinks you are here.
In all seriousness, I am glad to discover that Google's advertising algorithm does seem to be restricting its data mining. Also sad that they did not assign me the "fan fiction" category.
WTF, Google? You have my name, real birthday, and a copy of my entire music library! Also most of my email for the past 8 years, all the blog feeds I read, and my search history. Girls never do searches for programming bugs, apparently.
You can see who Google thinks you are here.
In all seriousness, I am glad to discover that Google's advertising algorithm does seem to be restricting its data mining. Also sad that they did not assign me the "fan fiction" category.