Ever since Google informed the world of their Grand Unification of the Privacy Policies, folks have been checking out their Google Ad Preferences and finding in many cases that Google is to pinpoint accuracy as an elephant is to a Chippendale sideboard.
Your Ad Preferences profile is not based on your Google profile—what you search, what you talk about in your Gmail, what you upload to YouTube. It’s based just on what you visit.
Well, I visit a hella lotta sites, and according to Google Ad Preferences, I am a man, age 55-64, with the following preferences:
Arts & Entertainment – Comics & Animation – Comics
Arts & Entertainment – Music & Audio
Arts & Entertainment – TV & Video – Online Video
Arts & Entertainment – TV & Video – TV Shows & Programs – TV Sci-Fi & Fantasy Shows
Games
News – Politics – Campaigns & Elections
People & Society – Subcultures & Niche Interests – Science Fiction & Fantasy
No fashion sites. It missed all the cooking blogs I visit. All the recipe sites. SF/F “subculture” (hate that word. sounds like something that grows under the shower benches) is right. Politics. But nothing about books or writing or animals. Travel. Science.
On the other hand, maybe I should be glad that it missed me so badly.