Story 2015-10-04 PE67 Google will let companies target ads using your email address

Google will let companies target ads using your email address

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in internet on (#PE67)
Google will soon let advertisers tap into one of the most lucrative types of ad targeting: email addresses. The search giant is rolling out a new tool called Customer Match, which lets advertisers use a list of email addresses to target specific users across Google services. To be targeted through this technique, you only need to be logged into your Google account and have given your email address to a retailer, perhaps by buying something from their website or giving it out to sign up for a loyalty program. Google will also be compiling lists with general customer habits like YouTube viewing and Google search histories to target ads with.

By tapping into email addresses, as both Facebook and Twitter have already long been doing with their own respective products, Google can take higher cuts of the more costly and better targeted ads being served even from within the Gmail and YouTube apps on mobile devices. Google calls Customer Match a "privacy-safe" product, but that may not quell the concern of users who feel that advertisers are getting even more specific with their ad targeting.
Reply 4 comments

Privacy-safe...to a point (Score: 3, Insightful)

by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2015-10-04 18:25 (#PEFY)

If you only log in to your Google account at home, and you're the only one who sees your computer monitor, then sure, they're just letting companies target you based on what people statistically like you have bought. For some, that may mean lots of ads for clothes, other lots of ads for adult services.

What if you log in to your Google account at work and at home. Your at-home purchases should not lead to targeted ads at work. Lots of people buy not-safe-for-work items; most wouldn't appreciate related ads being shown at work.

This is only "privacy-safe" if all the computers you use are 100% private, and even then, being lumped together with others based on how you use your computer is still a basic privacy breach. Unfortunately, in this day and age it's not only expected, but accepted.

Re: Privacy-safe...to a point (Score: 1, Insightful)

by kwerle@pipedot.org on 2015-10-04 19:24 (#PEJW)

Couple of points:
  • If you log in to your home account on work hardware or network, you get what you deserve. It's work's hardware/equipment. If they aren't cool, don't trust 'em.
  • I can't think of anything that google provides that it doesn't provide over https or similar. Work isn't gonna know what appears on your monitor unless someone is watching over your shoulder. See point 1. Blow your caches and browse incognito if you're worried about someone scanning your cache, etc.

Re: Privacy-safe...to a point (Score: 1, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-10-05 08:34 (#PFYC)

Good point. They can still see where you are going and nail you from there. 120mb traffic from banginggrannies.com? Fired!

Which is why I haven;t signed up for any social networking (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2015-10-15 16:32 (#QK8G)

Which is why I haven't signed up for any social networking sites or any online mail providers etc. ever.

I haven't even created a google account for using my android phone (which makes getting apps a little more work)

You can stick all your walled gardens (more like sheep pens) where the sun don't shine !