Google uses card details to show ads are netting the digital dollars
The new credit-card data enables the tech giant to connect these digital trails to real-world purchase records in a far more extensive way than was possible before.
But in doing so, Google is yet again treading in territory that consumers may consider too intimate and potentially sensitive.
Google declined to detail how the new system works or what compan- ies are analysing records of credit and debit cards on Google’s behalf. Google said it would not handle the records directly but that its undisclosed partner companies had access to 70% of transactions for credit and debit cards in the US.
“What’s really fascinating to me is that as the companies become increasingly intrusive in ter ms of their data collection, they also become more secretive,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Google said it took pains to protect to protect user privacy.
“While we developed the concept for this product years ago, it required years of effort to develop a solution that could meet our stringent user privacy requirements,” Google said.
The announcement comes as Google attempts to weather an outcry from advertisers over how their ad dollars are spent.
Google is working to move past an advertising boycott threat of YouTube, its lucrative video site, after news reports that ads for mainstream brands were appearing alongside extremist content, including sites featuring hate speech and violence.
Google for years has been mining location data from Google Maps in an effort to prove that knowledge of people’s physical locations could “close the loop” between physical and digital worlds.
“Google – and also Facebook – believe that to get digital dollars from advertisers who are still primarily spending on TV, they need to prove that digital works,” said Amit Jain, chief executive of Bridg, a start-up that matches online and off-line behavior.
“These companies have to invest in finding the identity of the consumer at the moment when that shopper is at the cash register.”
This week’s announcement gives Google a clearer way to understand purchases than just location and allows it to understand purchase activity even when consumers deactivate location tracking on their smartphones.