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Google and Mastercard Cut Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

bloomberg.com

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

#161

Post by Rafuino »

eitally wrote: post #147
zerealshadowban wrote: post #133

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…

FWIW, the Ads org is about 8000 employees (not counting sales), out of 80000 total at Google. Cloud is about 25000 (of which about 4000 are sales and supporting GTM functions). There's MUCH more going on at Google than ads... and that doesn't count the enormous teams working on things like Android, Chrome, Maps, and Youtube.

Uhh... ultimately Android, Chrome, Maps, and Youtube are all about siphoning more data on you and delivering more ads

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

#162

Post by njarboe »

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.

Credit cards know how much you spend at Whole Foods with a certain transaction amount. This I always assumed was tracked and could be used/sold by the credit card companies. This article tends to imply that MasterCard is getting the actual list of things that you buy at a store. I would hope that for this to happen the store must also be involved in selling the individual item list to the credit card company. I was hoping that stores were not doing this or I would have heard something about it, but maybe it would not really be news at this point in the data selling game.

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

#163

Post by rapnie »

Gaelan wrote: post #144
rrdelaney wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is not in the business of selling your data. Google does not sell your data. It’s pretty clear in their privacy policy: https://privacy.google.com/how-ads-work.html Disclaimer: I work at Google.

You're right–people often conflate "selling" with "using internally to sell ads." There's a difference, and it's meaningful, but the point is that Google's business model is based on gathering and exploiting as much data about you as possible

Yes. And isn't it also the case that, by offering their very elaborate targeting capabilities to advertisers, they still leak your personal data to 3rd parties, though indirectly? After all, the fact that a certain personalized ad appears in your page confirms to the advertiser that you are in their carefully crafted target group.

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

#164

Post by paperpunk »

rrdelaney wrote: post #143
ehnto wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can be extremely ethical about your factory farm but it's still a factory farm. Google is in the business of utilising your data in the interest of advertising. No matter how you sugar coat it, the core of the business is tracking people and exploiting that data. Are they doing their best to be careful and ethical? It sure seems like it, but that doesn't solve the issue. The free services they and many tech compa…

Google is not in the business of selling your data. Google does not sell your data. It’s pretty clear in their privacy policy: https://privacy.google.com/how-ads-work.html Disclaimer: I work at Google.

I'm not so sure it's so clear in that page you linked to. Google do also sell the largest analytics/user-tracking platform that exists (Google Analytics). That page you linked to seems to hinge around what constitutes 'personal information' which I'm sure others have differing opinions about but does go back to the parent's point: Google is in the business of selling your data. It maybe does it in a controlled way, segregating by client properties, or removing certain personally identifying information, but it's still selling your data.

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

#165

Post by justincormack »

eitally wrote: post #147
zerealshadowban wrote: post #133

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…

FWIW, the Ads org is about 8000 employees (not counting sales), out of 80000 total at Google. Cloud is about 25000 (of which about 4000 are sales and supporting GTM functions). There's MUCH more going on at Google than ads... and that doesn't count the enormous teams working on things like Android, Chrome, Maps, and Youtube.

85% of revenue is directly attributable to advertising. Its an ad company that would like not to be.

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

#166

Post by rapnie »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #128
donarb wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy Amazon gift cards with cash anywhere like drug and grocery stores.

However, you have other problems: If you have an account, or even a consistent shipping address, Amazon knows what you're buying. So you'd need to anonymize where you're shipping packages to, the names on those packages, and you'd need to register new Amazon accounts regularly with new email addresses to avoid them profiling your purchasing habits.

This makes me wonder if there is a business model for 'anonymous proxy' companies, where you do the shopping at your favourite online webshops, but handle actual ordering, payment and final delivery to your home via the proxy company, who guarantee your privacy for a small additional fee, or subscription charge.

Maybe this exists already. The difficulty would be in offering a good usability (how do you get that Amazon product you want in your local shopping basket).

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

#167

Post by jessedhillon »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #68
mvpu wrote: post #49

The key here is "double-blind encryption" - assuming they got that right, neither can see exactly what I am buying, so I'm good. Bigger point: I'd be ok with any company tracking my activities _as long as_ one of two conditions are met: a) it benefits me (and me only), or b) it benefits them _but_ they cannot identify me.

(a) is underspecified. Benefits you according to whose values? If it's someone else's values, then I would object. If it is your own values, then whether it benefits you really becomes secondary, because what matters is that they need your consent. Whether you give consent based on what benefits you is not a primary concern, though presumably you would. (b) seems to me like an expression of a naive view of personal i…

The defining feature of a conspiracy theory is that a large number of likely unrelated activities are either part of the conspiracy, or explained by the theory.

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

#168

Post by njarboe »

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.

There is no legal restriction of how much money you can carry around with you in the US, I believe. When you cross a national border you need to declare it and if you buy casino chips or deposit into a bank, they will report you to the government. But the cops can and often do "arrest" the money and will take much smaller amounts of money from you if they find it.

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

#169

Post by rapnie »

DeepYogurt wrote: post #44
ilove_banh_mi wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did read the article. That's discovering that someone is stalking you, until and unless you tell them you'd rather "opt out" even though you never "opted in" the evil stalking. Meanwhile, all shops and businesses you get near to or purchase from are calling the stalker to let him know what you're doing -- how do you "opt out" of these?

Pull money out at an ATM and pay for things with cash I guess. Not great, but it's an option.

As long as this is possible. In China's social credit experiments cash money is no longer an option, and in countries such as Sweden they are thinking of getting rid of cash too (though public opinion has shifted somewhat with growing awareness of privacy issues).

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

#170

Post by gaius »

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.

The big hedge funds pay big dollars for direct lines of data from the credit card companies

They are looking for advance warning of something happening to the merchant, if they are a public company - not on you as an individual.

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