According to a bombshell report by Bloomberg, Google and MasterCard have a secret deal to track shopping activities of clients. The existence of a clandestine deal between the two market giants was first discovered four years ago.
Google has reportedly partnered with MasterCard, the second largest credit card network in the USA, to get millions of dollars worth of data on its customers.
The alleged deal allows Google to link ads that a user clicks to what they buy in stores using their card. If there’s a match, Google provides feedback to the advertiser. The scheme works only if a customer is logged into a Google account and has not switched off Google Ad Tracking, a rather tricky process that takes several stages to accomplish.
It has become possible to assess how on-line ads influence consumer behavior thanks to the Store Sales Measurement tool, unveiled by Google in May 2017.
When asked to comment on the previously unknown deal, Google and MasterCard have neither denied nor confirmed its existence. Both companies, however, insisted that they do not study the activity of individual consumers and provide their customers with aggregated de-personalized data.
MasterCard has also denied that it provided personal information to any third parties, saying it only offers merchants and service providers, the company told the BBC.
RT.com / ABC Flash Point Information News 2018.
Criminal spies stealing your information without your consent?
Calling it security?