Tech

Google Blocks Advertisement Targeting for People Under 18

In the name of a security and family-friendly web environment.

Published

4 years ago

January 27, 2022

Ads are an inevitable part of everyone’s internet experience, even the best of adblockers can miss some. Some websites do not even allow one to look at content if the visitor is using an adblocker. In addition to that, targeted ads that use the data of the user to provide ads that may be related to the person’s interest have become the norm for many platforms that revolve around ad revenues. Now, to make the internet a more family-friendly environment and protect data security, Google will block ad targeting for people under 18.

What are “targeted advertisements” and why will they be blocked?

Ad targeting is an advertisement concept that involves the usage of data that involves customers’ interest, age, gender, where people look at in a website, etc. to increase the effectiveness of the advertisement. While the concept itself is useful for commercial purposes, it involves personal data and faced some backlash due to it. Now, in 2022, at least for people under 18, Google will remove targeting and will only show standard family-friendly ads. In the blog post that talks about security, Google said:

We’ve already made progress on delivering a safer experience to kids and teens online by expanding safeguards to prevent age-sensitive ad categories from being shown to teens, and we will block ad targeting based on the age, gender, or interests of people under 18.

They also state that they will “focus on strengthening protections for vulnerable groups” within this year. So, the trending topic of the web seems to be security this year. Especially after a lot of backlash against a lot of big companies (Read: Amazon Class Action Lawsuit: What if Your Devices Are Actually Listening to You in Secret?).

Credit: Pixabay

Future plans

Since the ad targeting will be blocked for people under 18, it clearly shows a shift from bringing revenue to security in the internet trends. At the same time, Google also announced that they are working on Chrome to build a “Privacy Sandbox” where the primary aim is, yes, you guessed it, privacy. Tracking, data usage, consent on the web, copyright, cookies, digital assets; the internet commercializes more and more. While human rights, sensitive information, and money are the things at stake, it brings everyone hope that companies are working on it.