Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales

Google and Mastercard brokered a business partnership that 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.com 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. People don’t expect what they buy physically in a store to be linked to what they are buying online.

Source: Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales – Bloomberg