Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 294 posts

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#131

Post by derekp7 »

i1856511 wrote: post #94
noelsusman wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your only option is to refuse cards altogether because they've all been selling anonymized data on you for years. The big hedge funds pay big dollars for direct lines of data from the credit card companies.

A lot of attention in the press is given to Google et. al. about purchase profiling and tracking for ads. But the concept of purchase profiling has existed really since the invention of the credit card. As others have mentioned hedge funds have brokered this data for decades - but for some reason it has not been covered as excruciatingly as it has for tech companies. While I disapprove of the practice overall I would…

The reason tech companies get the spotlight is because there are times when the tracking is so much in your face. For example, if I look up specs on a pair of Bose headphones, I get plastered with ads for Bose for the next couple months (unless I flush my cookies, and/or browse anonymously or use an ad blocker). Yes, I know what is going on behind the scenes, but it still feels like stalking.

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#132

Post by euske »

noelsusman wrote: post #70
ilove_banh_mi wrote: post #2

Do I have a choice, other than cancelling all of my MasterCard cards? This business of tracking and profiling is increasingly evil. If I dystopically discovered that someone has been following me around all the time, writing down everything I look at or do or purchase, in public and at home, I could not tolerate it.

Your only option is to refuse cards altogether because they've all been selling anonymized data on you for years. The big hedge funds pay big dollars for direct lines of data from the credit card companies.

I think you could buy an anonymous prepaid/gift card periodically, though I don't know if there's any restriction that prevents you from buying certain things (probably you can't use it for airline check-in). Wish this kind of things could be done more easily in future.

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#133

Post by zerealshadowban »

I've been repeatedly contacted by Google over recent years (supposedly because of the work I've done) but I've always felt uneasy about them and hesitated to respond. This additional layer of tracking and the recent revelation on location tracking regardless of explicit settings both seal the non-deal for me.

The soul of that company is to turn the human experience into a vessel for the paid delivery of ads, nothing else matters. Of course I'm sure that one can join many interesting engineering projects there, with suitable blinders. Even when they introduced their AR glasses, they had to show virtual billboards assaulting one's field of vision. What you are to Google is a recipient for ad delivery -- not a customer, not a respected human, not someone to trade with.

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#134

Post by leereeves »

village-idiot wrote: post #129
leereeves wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say the 2016 election proved how hard we are to manipulate. Hillary lost despite spending more and having nearly the entire media (with only a few exceptions like Fox) on her side.

It's hard to say that the media was on her side when they gave billions worth of free coverage to Trump. They also gave her email scandals equal weighting compared to Trump admitting to sexual assault and directly asking a foreign government to hack his opponent on live television.

That was negative coverage of Trump. Perhaps what 2016 proved is that there really is no such thing as bad publicity.

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#135

Post by CynicalDio »

mrep wrote: post #127
orbitingpluto wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you don't travel on a highway where the money will be seized by law enforcement by use of civil asset forfeiture due to your suspiciously carrying cash.

I believe that limit is $10,000 and you never use a credit card when spending that amount of money because the transaction fees are too high.

The limit is not 10,000. There may be an official number where that starts happening but I have seen it happen (completely anecdotal) with amounts as low as $800.

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#136

Post by morgosmaci »

UncleEntity wrote: post #53
cm2187 wrote: post #23

I don't understand how they can correlate a sale to a specific google account without getting personal identification data. By definition if they can associate a transaction with a user, the user has been identified and has lost all privacy.

They double ROT-13 the email address that each side collected so they can correlate, but not identify, individual consumers -- or something, TFA didn't specify the actual encryption algorithm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homomorphic_encryption

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#138

Post by tdb7893 »

bigiain wrote: post #97
spydum wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of all the other possible parties that could have attempted this? Yup, I'd say I trust them the most.

I don't doubt one bit that they have people capable and probably even willing to get the crypto right. I _strongly_ doubt they have the corporate will or motivation to actually put it into production. I'd go so far as to say "getting it right" is antithetical to their (enormously profitable and deeply entrenched) business model.

If they sold it to Mastercard as double blind I personally would trust them on it. Lying to consumers seems to turn out fine but lying to large corporations I would bet gets expensive and my experience is that a large org will bend over backwards to meet the letter (if not the spirit) of what they say.

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#139

Post by auslander »

pointillistic wrote: post #6
ilove_banh_mi wrote: post #2

Do I have a choice, other than cancelling all of my MasterCard cards? This business of tracking and profiling is increasingly evil. If I dystopically discovered that someone has been following me around all the time, writing down everything I look at or do or purchase, in public and at home, I could not tolerate it.

How do you unGoogle? They have my phone, my email. Amazon now follows my grocery shopping at Whole Foods. I doubt Visa and Amex are far behind, it's free money for them so there is no point in canning Master. What a disaster! Ad supported Internet is the root of the problem.

It is vital to unGoogle, to protect your data. Totally possible.

1. Switch everything to Apple, hardware company. iPhone, Mac OS

2. Use myname@icloud.com email, create few email aliases. Forward your gmail to it, and finally delete gmail accounts.

3. Don't use any of Googles software, like Chrome. Install adbocker extention/app and use Private Browsing windows by default

4. Buy a VPN subscription and set up your phone and Mac to always use it (on-demand).

Re: Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

#140

Post by mrep »

CynicalDio wrote: post #135
mrep wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe that limit is $10,000 and you never use a credit card when spending that amount of money because the transaction fees are too high.

The limit is not 10,000. There may be an official number where that starts happening but I have seen it happen (completely anecdotal) with amounts as low as $800.

Care to tell your story because that is totally fucked up if a cop took a measly $800 in cash from you?
Post reply on HN