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The Accuracy of the Demographic Inferences Shown on Google's Ad Settings

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Published:15 January 2018Publication History

ABSTRACT

Google's Ad Settings shows the gender and age that Google has inferred about a web user. We compare the inferred values to the self-reported values of 501 survey participants. We find that Google often does not show an inference, but when it does, it is typically correct. We explore which usage characteristics, such as using privacy enhancing technologies, are associated with Google's accuracy, but found no significant results.

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Conferences
      WPES'18: Proceedings of the 2018 Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society
      October 2018
      190 pages
      ISBN:9781450359894
      DOI:10.1145/3267323

      Copyright © 2018 ACM

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      Publication History

      • Published: 15 January 2018

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      WPES'18 Paper Acceptance Rate11of25submissions,44%Overall Acceptance Rate106of355submissions,30%

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