Google wants your permission to use your name, photo and product reviews in ads that it sells to businesses.
The Internet search giant is changing its terms of service starting Nov. 11.
Your
reviews of restaurants, shops and products, as well as songs and other
content bought on the Google Play store could show up in ads that are
displayed to your friends, connections and the broader public when they
search on Google. The company calls that feature ``shared
endorsements.''
Google laid out an example of
how this could happen: ``Katya Klinova,'' her face and five-star review
appear underneath an ad for Summertime Spas.
You can opt out of sharing your reviews.
Google
said Friday that the name and photo you use in its social network,
Google Plus, is the one that would appear in the ad. Google has said the
social network has 390 million active users per month.
``We
want to give you _ and your friends and connections _ the most useful
information. Recommendations from people you know can really help,'' the
company said in an explanation of the changes.
The
Mountain View, California, company already had a similar setting for
its ``+1'' button, which it introduced in 2011. It had experimented
temporarily with putting ``+1'' endorsements with users' identities in
ads, but it hasn't had them up recently. The company said Friday that
the choice a user made about allowing for ``+1'' endorsements would
remain the same.
Also, if a user chooses to
limit an endorsement to certain circles of friends or contacts, that
restriction will be respected in any ads that use the endorsement.
Google's
move follows a similar proposal by Facebook. The social network in
August said it would show users' faces and names in ads about products
they clicked to ``like.'' That proposal was criticized by privacy
groups.
They asked the Federal Trade
Commission to look into the matter, which the agency said it did as part
of routine monitoring of privacy practices.
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