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YouTube Advertising and You

We want to make advertising on YouTube as useful and interesting to you as possible. For some pages, we choose ads that we think will reflect your interests, based on the types of videos you prefer to watch, as well as your site activity (uploading, for example). Additionally, YouTube uses information based on the type of pages you visit on websites that are members of the Google content network. We also allow advertisers to show you ads based on your previous interactions with them, such as visits to their websites.

While on YouTube, you may see ads appear inside and alongside the videos you watch. It's our goal to make these ads as relevant as possible for you. While we often show you ads based on the topic of the video you are viewing, we also use technology that shows some ads based on interest categories that you might find useful. As you watch videos, or take actions (such as uploading) YouTube stores an advertising cookie in your browser to understand the types of videos you watch. Based on this information, YouTube associates your browser with relevant interest categories and uses these categories to show interest-based ads on videos you watch. For example, if you watch many sports-related videos, YouTube may associate a sports interest category with your cookie and show more sports-related ads to you. The same category would also appear in your list of interest categories that you can edit using the Ad Preferences Manager. Using the Ads Preferences Manager, you can edit the list of interest categories that YouTube has associated with your advertising cookie. YouTube will not associate sensitive interest categories with your advertising cookie (such as those based on race, religion, sexual orientation, health, or sensitive financial categories) and will not use these categories when showing you interest-based ads.

Q. What information do you use in associating interests with me?

YouTube uses information based on the type of videos that you watch on the site as well as your site activity (uploading, for example). Additionally, YouTube uses information based on the type of pages you visit on websites that are members of the Google content network.

Q. How do I manage my preferences?

You can go to the Ad Preferences Manager to add or remove interest categories.

Q. Why is the Ad Preferences Manager on Google.com?

YouTube is owned by Google and YouTube and Google share the same cookie technology in determining user interests. You can read more about the cookie technology Google uses to serve ads in the Google Ads Privacy Center.

Q. How do ads work that are based on visits to advertiser websites?

In addition to ads based on interest categories, YouTube also allows advertisers to show you ads based on your previous interactions with them, such as visits to their websites. For example, someone who visited the website of an online sporting goods store can receive ads about special offers from that store. Advertisers cannot use this technology to identify you personally, but it enables them to deliver much more relevant ads to groups of users who previously visited to their website.

Q. Can I opt out?

If you prefer not to receive this type of interest-based advertising, you can always opt out by clicking the "Opt out" button in the Ads Preferences Manager. After you opt out, YouTube will not collect interest category information and you will not receive interest-based ads. You will see the same number of ads as before, but they may not be as relevant. Because of the technical limitations of cookies, if you delete all cookies from your browser, your opt-out setting disappears. To overcome this limitation, you may download our advertising cookie opt-out plugin that allows you to clear your cookies while keeping the opt-out setting.

Q. How can I learn more about how Interest-based Advertising works on YouTube and Google?

You can learn more at the Ad Preferences Manager FAQ.