If you’re an Adsense publisher, by now, you probably should have received and read this email. It’s about the interest-based advertising that Google going to roll out in near future.

I’ve almost forgotten about it if not because of this post. So what actions needed from publisher?

First, Google request publishers to update privacy concern (if any or compulsory?) on the website before 8th April.  Read here, to know what should be added. It is quite technical though, even myself read it 2-3 times to get to it.

Secondly, by opt in into this program, you have choices what type of ads you want to appear on your website. Set this ads preference on Google Ads Preference page. For instance, if your blog is technology oriented, you can put technology, gadget, as the  preference.

By default, all publishers are opt in on this program, but if you still having doubt about this it, you can opt out from it. Special opt out plugin will be installed in your browser to retain your opt out setup even when the cookies were deleted.

So do you opt out? I did, until I can see the good results from other publishers.

Read posts from Google blog, Adsense Blog and Google Public Policy blog for depth review.

We’re writing to let you know about the upcoming launch of interest-based advertising, which will require you to review and make any necessary changes to your site’s privacy policies. You’ll also see some new options on your Account Settings page.

Interest-based advertising will allow advertisers to show ads based on a user’s previous interactions with them, such as visits to advertiser website and also to reach users based on their interests (e.g. “sports enthusiast”).  To develop interest categories, we will recognize the types of web pages users visit throughout the Google content network.  As an example, if they visit a number of sports pages, we will add them to the “sports enthusiast” interest category.  To learn more about your associated account settings, please visit the AdSense Help Center at http://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=20310.

As a result of this announcement, your privacy policy will now need to reflect the use of interest-based advertising. Please review the information at https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100557 to ensure that your site’s privacy policies are up-to-date, and make any necessary changes by April 8, 2009.  Because publisher sites and laws vary across countries, we’re unfortunately unable to suggest specific privacy policy language.

For more information about interest-based advertising, you can also visit the Inside AdSense Blog at http://adsense.blogspot.com/2009/03/driving-monetization-with-ads-that.html.

We appreciate your participation and look forward to this upcoming enhancement.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team