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Your name and face photo can be used in Google ads from 11th November unless you opt out

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Google has announced a change to its terms of service that will allow the company to use your name, photo and company endorsements to be included in ads from 11th November (via the NYT).

When the new ad policy goes live Nov. 11, Google will be able to show what the company calls shared endorsements on Google sites and across the Web, on the more than two million sites in Google’s display advertising network, which are viewed by an estimated one billion people.

If a user follows a bakery on Google Plus or gives an album four stars on the Google Play music service, for instance, that person’s name, photo and endorsement could show up in ads for that bakery or album … 

In most cases, content will be restricted to your own circles, but star ratings and reviews posted on Google Play and Google Plus Local can be seen by anyone.

Under 18s will be automatically excluded, along with those who previously opted out of their +1s being included in ads. If you’d like to join them, you can do so by unchecking the box on this page and hitting the Save button. You’ll need to sign-in to your Google account to do so.

Facebook already uses names and face photos in this way, though in that case only your Facebook friends can view the content. Facebook does not allow users to opt-out.

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