Google has been quietly providing certain advertisers with access to Mastercard transaction data, allowing them to monitor whether consumers ending up buying products featured in online ads, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Over the course of four years, Google hashed out a deal with Mastercard in which it agreed to pay millions of dollars in order to use data from the two billion payment cards it has in circulation. Most Mastercard users are unaware of the arrangement. Google is expected to capture almost 40 percent of the digital ad market in 2018.
Stores Sales Measurement, the feature that was created from this data partnership, essentially makes note of whether a customer logged into a Google account has clicked on an ad for a certain product. The tracking feature also makes a note of whether the customer then uses a Mastercard to buy said product in a brick-and-mortar store within 30 days of interacting with the ad. Google then provides the advertiser with a revenue report on these sales that includes data on the percentage of customers who went through with buying a product after clicking the ad. Neither Google or the advertisers are supposed to have access to information that could identify these customers.
Source: https://slate.com
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