Ads that respect your privacy.

'There is nothing more important than keeping you safe online. Building products that are secure by default, private by design, and that give you control is how we ensure that, every day, you're safer with Google.'

- Jen Fitzpatrick, Senior Vice President, Core Systems & Experiences at Google

Our ads commitments Ad controls Questions about ads

Our commitment to responsible advertising.

Keeping the Internet open, private and safe is at the core of everything that we do. We are committed to delivering ads responsibly. Here’s how Google’s privacy principles apply to ads:

We never sell your personal information to anyone.

We never sell your personal information to anyone, including for ads purposes.

We are transparent about what data we collect and why.

We clearly label ads and sponsored content on our platforms and make it easy for you to understand why specific ads are shown, what information is used and how you can control your Google ad experience.

For example, with Search, YouTube and Discover, My Ad Centre shows you what information is used for ads and makes it easy to manage that information so that the experience is right for you.

We make it easy for you to control your personal information.

You’re in control of your information and how it’s used for advertising. Your activity on Google – such as sites that you visit and things that you’ve searched for – is used to deliver better, more helpful experiences across our products, including ads, based on your preferences.

My Ad Centre allows you to customise your ad experiences on Google Search, Discover and YouTube to see more of the brands and topics that you like and less of the ones that you don’t. You can also choose to reduce ads about certain sensitive ad topics, including alcohol, dating, gambling, pregnancy and parenting, and weight loss.

You can turn off ads personalisation altogether and also permanently delete the activity data tied to your account at any time with the data and privacy settings.

We reduce the data that we use to further protect your privacy.

We never use sensitive information like health, race, religion or sexual orientation to tailor ads to you.

We never use the content that you create and store in apps like Drive, Gmail and Photos for ads purposes. And to further protect your privacy, we made auto-delete the default for our core activity settings. This means that activity data tied to your account will be automatically and continuously deleted after 18 months, rather than kept until you choose to delete it.

We’re always looking for ways to keep children safer online, and do not allow ads personalisation for children where we know that they are under 18.

We protect you by building products that are secure by default.

Protecting your privacy and securing your data is core to Google’s work. That’s why all Google products are continuously protected by one of the world’s most advanced security infrastructures. This built-in security helps detect and prevent evolving online threats, including scams and attempts to obtain personal information through fraudulent ads, to help keep your information safe.

Additionally, to help keep you safe, we verify advertisers globally and work to detect bad actors and limit their attempts to misrepresent themselves. You can learn more by visiting our searchable hub of all ads served from verified advertisers with the Ads Transparency Center.

We build advanced privacy technologies and share them with others.

You should be able to enjoy your online experience without worrying about what personal information is collected, and by whom. That’s why teams across Google are collaborating with the wider industry to implement the Privacy Sandbox initiative that aims to make current tracking mechanisms obsolete, and block covert tracking techniques, such as fingerprinting.

Choose the ad experience
that’s right for you.

Easy new ways for you to control the ads that you see.

Mock-up of My Ad Centre hub page, with controls to customise your ad experience

Ad controls on Google

With My Ad Centre, it’s easier than ever to control the ads that you see across Google Search, YouTube and Discover.

My Ad Centre makes it easy to control the information used to show you ads. This includes information associated with your Google Account and what we estimate about your interests based on your activity. You can also use My Ad Centre to customise your ad experience so that you see more of the brands you like, and limit the ones you don’t. You can also permanently delete the activity data tied to your account at any time.

Go to My Ad Centre

Ad controls beyond Google

Use ad settings to control your ads on third-party sites and apps

As part of your online ad experience, you likely see ads from businesses that use Google to advertise across certain websites and apps. To control these ads, visit Ad settings to easily manage the information that is used to show you ads. This includes information that you’ve added to your Google Account, what we estimate about your interests based on your activity, and interactions with other advertisers that use our advertising platform to show ads.

Turn off personalised ads whenever you want

You can also turn off personalised ads altogether. You’ll still see ads, but they’ll most likely be less relevant to your interests. Your settings will apply anywhere you’re signed in with your Google Account.

Go to My Ad Centre

Go to Ad Settings

Learn more about
the ads that you see.

Why this ad

See what data we use to show ads

The 'Why this ad?' feature helps you understand why you are seeing a given ad. For example, you may discover that you are seeing a camera ad because you’ve searched for cameras, visited photography websites or clicked on ads for cameras before.

Mock-up of 'Who paid for this ad' page within My Ad Centre that shows how much the advertiser paid for a given ad

Advertiser identity verification

Learn about the advertisers behind the ads that you see

To provide you with more information about who is advertising to you, we are working to verify the identity of the advertisers on our platforms. As part of this initiative, advertisers are required to complete a verification programme in order to buy ads from Google, and you will see ad disclosures that list the name and country of the advertiser.

If you want to find out more – such as which ads were shown in a certain region or the format of the ad – you can visit the Ads Transparency Center, a searchable hub of all ads across YouTube, Search and Display served from verified advertisers. You can access the Ads Transparency Center directly, or by visiting My Ad Centre through the three-dot menu next to the ads that you see.

Visit the Ads Transparency Center

Learn more about the questions that people are asking about ads.

What data does Google use for ads?

We use your activity on Google – like sites that you visit, apps that you use and things that you've searched for, and associated information like location – to deliver better, more helpful experiences across our products, including ads.

We never use sensitive information such as health, race, religion or sexual orientation to tailor the ads that you see. And we don’t use data from Drive, Gmail and Photos for ads, either.

You can control what information is used to personalise ads and manage your ads preferences with My Ad Centre.

Why does Google use my information for advertising?

Google uses your information to show you ads that we think are relevant to your interests based on your activities, or help you discover something new.

For example, if you’re researching new cars, it’s more useful to see ads featuring promotions from local car dealers than to see generic ads for balcony furniture or pet food.

You're always in control of your data with easy-to-use privacy tools, and it's always your choice to share information with Google and decide how it's used for advertising.

Does Google read my emails or listen to my phone calls to show me ads?

No. Your email and your conversations are personal and private. We never show you ads based on what you write in your emails, what you say over the phone, or what you store in services like Google Drive.