Google Purchases MasterCard Customer Data for Ad Platform

According to a report from Bloomberg, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, bought consumer data from MasterCard for its Advertisement services. The data would be used to create an advertising product for select customers  that would allow the tracking of consumer retail spending. The agreement between the two companies was never disclosed to the general public or MasterCard customers. As of now, Google has declined to comment on the partnership with MasterCard.

The partnership between Alphabet and MasterCard was negotiated over the span of four years. According to people who were involved in the arrangement, Alphabet paid MasterCard millions of dollars and agreed to share part of the revenue generated by Ads. The data allows Google to track whether their advertisements made a sale in U.S retail stores. The feature would enable companies advertising with Google greater insight on how effective their Ad campaign is.

Google has been facing great scrutiny from consumers and organizations regarding its privacy policies after it was discovered they track Google Service users’ location even with the Location History feature turned off. This transaction between Alphabet and MasterCard of user data without their knowledge is sure to raise ethical questions regarding company policies on the usage and disclosure of private data.