Google Sets Plan to Sell Users’ Endorsements

Google, following in Facebook’s footsteps, wants to sell users’ endorsements to marketers to help them hawk their wares. Google announced an update to its terms of service that allows the company to include adult users’ names, photos and comments in ads shown across the Web, based on ratings, reviews and posts they have made on Google Plus and other Google services like YouTube.

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. Google said it would give users the chance to opt out of being included in the new endorsements, and people under the age of 18 will automatically be excluded.