Ad Serving

This is an old version of "Ad Serving". View the latest version here.

Advertising is a core part of Verizon Media’s business. Personalised advertising is a fundamental part of the services we provide and our agreement with you to provide these services.  Many of our free brands, websites, apps, advertising services, products, services or technologies (“Services”) are supported by the ads we and others display.  We also provide a variety of online advertising services to other companies that want to place ads on our Services or elsewhere.  Verizon Media would not be able to provide many of its services without such personalised advertising. 

Verizon Media displays ads both on our owned and operated Services and on non-Verizon Media sites, apps, and services. Verizon Media serves display ads, also known as graphical ads, which appear as images, animation, or video. Verizon Media also serves text ads that appear as text links. Verizon Media’s advertising platforms provide the means for advertisers, agencies, publishers, and ad networks to manage their advertising business.

Ad selection and personalisation

  • Ads are more interesting and effective when they are shown to people who are likely to be interested in the product or service advertised. For this reason, we use the information we collect and receive about you (including information we receive on and off our Services) to help us select which ads to show you.  For additional information regarding the personal information we collect about you, please see the Verizon Media Privacy Policy.
  • We may select these ads based on the content of the page or app on which they appear.  For instance, if you are viewing a news article about a recently released album, Verizon Media may show you an ad for a music store that sells albums. Similarly, ads in finance content may be related to financial services. These kinds of ads are sometimes called “contextual ads.”  
  • Other ads we select may be based on information we have collected or received about activities and interests on websites and apps used on your linked devices (such as your computers, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), both on and off our Services. These ads are sometimes called “interest-based ads”, as they are personalised for you. Some interest-based ads are only based on an isolated online activity, such as if you were to go to an online bookshop and view a particular novel.  The bookseller might want to show you an ad for that novel because you’re probably more interested in buying it than the average online user. This kind of interest-based advertising is sometimes called “retargeting” or “remarketing”.   
  • Other interest-based ads are shown based on your online activities over time and across different websites and apps used on your various devices both on and off our Services. We may collect information about your online activities in this way in order to make predictions about which products or services might be of interest to you. Based on these predictions, we and other companies may categorise you as belonging to a “segment” of users that advertisers may be interested in showing ads to. For example, if you’ve recently visited a car dealer’s website, you might be grouped in an “Auto intenders” segment, and a car dealer who places ads with us might want us to show ads to the users who are in this segment. You can view a list of our standard categories for advertising.  Please note that the listed categories do not include custom categories, such as those created by a specific advertiser.
  • We also select personalised ads to show you based on other information you provide or that we collect from other sources, such as your gender, age or location, searches you conduct, or what your friends or contacts recommend to you, apps on the device or based on your other interests. For more details on information we receive about you from others, please visit the Verizon Media Privacy Policy.  

Data Use To Provide More Relevant Advertising

As explained above, we use the data we collect or receive about you to help us show ads for products or services that you are likely to be interested in and make the advertising we serve more effective.  

Verizon Media may use information you provide or that it receives, including information that on its own could reasonably identify you, to tailor ads when you use our Services or the services of others. Verizon Media may also analyse your use of our Services, including your engagement with the ads we show you, to improve the effectiveness of our advertising platforms, limit the number of times you see the same ad and measure the effectiveness of the specific ads we serve.

  • When showing you ads on a search results page, information about your browsing behaviour and your search query may be used to display more relevant ads. For more information about how your search queries may be used to display more relevant ads, visit the Search privacy page.
  • Verizon Media’s automated systems may analyse all content (including email and messenger communications) to match and serve targeted advertising. For more information on how content on these services may be analysed, please visit the Communications Services page and the FAQ for Communications Services & Analysis of Photos, Attachments & Other Content. 
  • Verizon Media may tailor ads based on location. For more information about how Verizon Media uses location information, please visit our Verizon Media Location privacy page.
  • Verizon Media may use information you provide, such as your age or gender, to tailor ads when you are logged in or if you have stored this information with an Verizon Media Service (even if you are logged out). Verizon Media may also use this information to tailor ads when you are using our Services.
  • Verizon Media uses a variety of tools and data points, including, but not limited to, IP addresses, web beacons, SDKs, cookies and similar technologies, to support Verizon Media advertising services. Click each link to learn more.
  • Verizon Media may personalise and tailor ads to you based on people you have connected with and their demonstrated or declared interests.
  • Verizon Media may personalise ads to you based on activities of accounts and devices associated with you.
  • We use data that we receive from other sources to help us provide more effective advertising.  For example, we may use data that is available from public or commercial sources and combine it with other data we have collected or received about a user or the user’s device for these purposes.  
  • We do not use, or allow others to use, financial information (which may be linked to your account) or sensitive data (as defined by the self-regulatory programmes listed below) to determine eligibility for health insurance, life insurance or employment. We also do not target ads to users based on sensitive information or special categories of sensitive information such as health data, a person’s sex life or sexual orientation. 

More Information

Your choices and controls

Learn more about your choices and how you can control your information by visiting Privacy Controls.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

If you have questions, suggestions or complaints, please complete a feedback form or you can contact us at:

Customer Care - Privacy Policy Issues
Verizon Media EMEA Limited
5-7 Point Square
North Wall Quay
Dublin 1