02 May Google Reveals New Offline Spending Tracking Tool
Google earlier this week revealed a tool that can measure consumer spending at a merchant’s physical store in relation to their ad clicks.
The tool works by matching the combined ad clicks of users who are logged into Google services with their collective purchases on credit and debit cards. Although Google says it won’t be able to see the specific items purchased or how much a specific individual spent, privacy advocates such as the Ponemon Institute say that the data can still be converted back to identify individuals..
Miro Copic, a marketing professor at San Diego State University, also said that this kind of data that Google collects is a hot target for hackers, and the search giant needs to tread carefully due to massive privacy implications that accompany the tool’s capabilities.
Source: CBS News
