Posted on 09/03/2018 8:08:35 AM PDT by BenLurkin
For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the U.S. That insight came, thanks in part to a stockpile of MasterCard transactions that Google paid for.
But most of the two billion MasterCard holders aren’t aware of this behind-the-scenes tracking. That’s because the companies never told the public about the arrangement.
Google and MasterCard brokered a business partnership during about four years of negotiations, according to four people with knowledge of the deal, three of whom worked on it directly. The alliance gave Google an unprecedented asset for measuring retail spending, part of the search giant’s strategy to fortify its primary business against onslaughts from Amazon and others.
But the deal, which has not been previously reported, could raise broader privacy concerns about how much consumer data technology companies like Google quietly absorb.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.com ...
Ok folks, we all like our “free” checking accounts and credit cards with rebates.
We will squeal like pigs when they start charging us for them...…………..
Time to bust Google.
No Track Bill of Rights
Right to be anonymous.
Cash is still king.
Google already tracks credit cards and purchases made at certain stores. When you walk your chip card through those metal detector looking things at the entrances that’s scanning your card. I know this my nephew works in the industry and he told me several years back. And then I made the connection of when I go to a store and make a purchase I come home later and go online and on the sidebar up comes A very similar ad for a product that I just purchased or perhaps another brand of a product that I just purchased. So put two and two together. Maybe the newsworthiness of this article is that they made a deal with MasterCard, however they already had a deal with other credit card companies.
>>Right to be anonymous.
Use cash. Don’t buy online.
None of them ever tell us what they’re doing with information on us. Whenever something is advertised as “free,” it means “sucker, you should have asked how we’re making money on you! we sell data about you, that’s how!”
I make NO in person purchases with a Credit or Debit card EVER!! I pay in CASH and am NEVER tracked, when asked for my phone number, I DON’T HAVE ONE!!!
and since I abstain from electronic purchases my Credit Card and Identity will NOT be compromised.
kind of like abstaining from sex outside of marriage prevents unwanted pregnancy and syphilis.
Bkmrk.
Line your wallet with aluminum foil wrapped around a piece of cardboard, or with mylar, like from a balloon or a potato chip bag. Or buy an expensive RFID purse or wallet (radio-frequency ID).
“That’s because the companies never told the public about the arrangement.”
I’d bet it’s in the 12 pages of font #6 legalese found in their “Privacy Disclosure” they send you each year. Use of their card acknowledges your acceptance.
Anybody ever read that? Search for the word “partner”...substitute Google.
I am increasingly using cash for everything.
“Google Wallet,” haha.
Hey Google, to make it real easy for you, how ‘bout I just email or fax (your choice) you my daily diary page?
How do you stop that? Just leave the phone in the car or disable the GPS (it'll still activate when you dial 911.)
I just assumed this was always being done with every card transaction in every store.
We need the equivalent of the Brit’s GDPR here.
Also...I buy what I want and need...not what they suggest. Their ads fall on deaf ears. Can’t remember the last time I clicked on an ad to purchase something.
Actually, I make it a point NOT to do that because, well, screw’em. I consider online ads akin to the spate of health insurance spam calls I’ve been getting for the last several months. Sometimes 3 call a day. Maybe you’ve gotten those calls. I call them the “be healthy and be blessed” people because that’s how they end their spoofed-number calls. There is no chance I would EVER buy from them.
OR, the ads that pop-up on the Spider Solitaire app on my phone. No way in heck would I ever click on those nuisance ads.
Besides, I don’t have that much time left above ground. Their info will soon be worthless.
Me too. About the only thing I consistently charge is gasoline. Just to avoid trekking into the store to pay cash.
Other than stuff I buy online, just about all my purchases are done with cash. Other than the video camera watching the cashier and me, no tracking (that I'm aware of).
People opted into all of it. If you want to be anonymous don’t use computers or credit cards.
Any app that uses location services tends to run in the background and continue to collect location data. It would be nice if the open source guys would hurry up and finish work on an open source OS for phones. There’s a few different groups working on it. That will give us the ability to not use android or iOS.
That reminds me. I need to go to AT&T store and see if they’ll take back this ZTE phone of ours. We’ve had it well over a year but maybe they’ll give us credit towards another phone if I bitch enough. “You sold me a phone with Chinese spyware on it”
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