Chrome: How to prevent it from selling your browser history for ad targeting

Over the past few months, Google has been slowly rolling out Chrome’s new advertising technology. Described as “Enhanced ad privacy”, the new policy essentially allows websites to use a user’s Chrome browser history and serve ads related to the latter.

The new technology first appeared in a Chrome update in July, but today more and more users are reporting the appearance of a pop up window announcing this addition. If you haven’t seen her yet, chances are you will see her soon.

When the pop-up window appears, it informs users of the modification of the advertising rules and details the novelties. Google tells users that they can make changes in Chrome settings.

An algorithm that creates a list of topics that Google thinks you are interested in

Although this is essentially the same as third-party tracking cookies that have been around for some time, many people are upset that Google is using their online activity to strengthen ad targeting. Fortunately, there is a relatively simple way to protect yourself better.

In your Chrome browser, click on Parameters, then on Confidentiality and security and finally on Privacy of ads. Once you are there, you will see a screen with three tabs : Ad themes, Ads suggested by the site and Ad measurement.

Screenshot by ZDNET France

The first is an algorithm that creates a list of topics that Google thinks you are interested in based on your online activity, the second is a service that suggests advertisements based on the websites you have visited, and the third is a category of data that allows advertisers to estimate the performance of advertisements.

If you wish, you can dive into the ad sections to find out what Google knows about you. But if you just want to prevent Google from tracking you (at least for these purposes), all you have to do is disable all three categories.

Screenshot by ZDNET France

Other sites will still have the means to track you, but this measure reduces the use of your personal information by Google Chrome.

Of course, this is only a small part of the online privacy puzzle, since you are almost always followed wherever you go online. Nevertheless, this is a first step towards better control of data by users.

If you still have doubts about Chrome’s new policy, you can also consider an alternative browser that focuses on this area.

Source: “ZDNet.com “