Even more convenience — google and mastercard's secret data-sharing deal from last year!
NEVER use mastercard!
Or google but everyone already knew that….
Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales
Google found the perfect way to link online ads to store purchases: credit card data
By Mark Bergen
and Jennifer Surane
Thursday, August 30, 2018 19:43:26 Updated on Friday, August 31, 2018 16:40:24
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.
Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Mastercard Inc. 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 Inc. 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.
rest of article … nvm 8ch won't allow the bloomberg link from last year