Google Following Your Offline Credit Card Spending To Tell Advertisers If Their Ads Work (consumerist.com)

One of the new tools Google has announced for its advertisers today promises to tie your offline credit card data together with all your online viewing to tell advertisers exactly what's working as they try to target you and your wallet. Consumerist reports: That return, for decades, was hard to measure in all but the most vaguely correlative of ways. Did people buy your product after seeing your TV ad? After seeing your billboard? On a whim after seeing neither? Who knows! But in the age of highly targeted, algorithmic advertising, the landscape is completely different. The apps on your phone know what you looked at and when, and can tie that in to what you see on other devices you're also logged into their services on (like your work computer). Meanwhile, you're leaving tracks out in the physical world -- not only the location history of your phone, but also the trail of payments you leave behind you if you pay with a credit card, debit card, or app (as millions of us do). Google also introduced some offline measurements to its online tool suite back in 2014, when it started using phone location data to try to match store visit location data to digital ad views. But a store doesn't make any money when you simply walk into it; you need to buy something. So Google's tracking that very granularly now, too. "In the coming months, we'll be rolling out store sales measurement at the device and campaign levels. This will allow you to measure in-store revenue in addition to the store visits delivered by your Search and Shopping ads," Google explains to advertisers. That's very literally a collection of spending data matched to the people who spent it, matched in turn to people who saw ads.

Comments

Cash

[Anonymous Coward]

I always use cash. Same reason I use a pad of paper and pen / pencil for taking notes. Its easy and always works. Sometimes the best tech is low tech.

Re:Cash

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta love the solipsism that comes with believing yourself interesting enough to be watched so closely.

Everyone is interesting enough to be watched so closely if the cost of watching someone is nearly nothing.

Credo

[mattyj]

Google turned evil so gradually I didn't even notice.

Nope

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"The apps on your phone know what you looked at and when, and can tie that in to what you see on other devices you're also logged into their services on (like your work computer)."

No, they don't, because I don't load up my phone with all that useless bullshit. The apps that aren't in use get disabled and/or deleted.

"Meanwhile, you're leaving tracks out in the physical world -- not only the location history of your phone"

No, I'm not because I don't turn all that battery-sucking GPS and location crap. I also don't turn on wifi except in a few specific locations. Yes, they can track me via cell towers, but it's rarely going to tie my purchases to anything identifiable because most of the time I use cash. Track that, you fuckers.

"but also the trail of payments you leave behind you if you pay with a credit card, debit card, or app (as millions of us do)."

Millions might, but I'm not one of them. Suck it, Google.

Unless you use a burner number

[real gumby]

I don't want to sound like an Apple shill, but the reason so many merchants and CC companies don't like apple pay is that it hides this info from the network and point of sale.

I'm even suspicious of one-time numbers from the CC company since that company knows who you are.