Shortly after admitting to tracking users’ locations even while they have location services turned off, Google is now doing even more to track what their users are doing offline. Neither company has publicly announced this lucrative deal, but the information has been disclosed by Bloomberg. Agreements had been made over a four-year time period, in which Mastercard will now transmit all of their data to Google. When Google announced its Store Sales Management, they proclaimed to only have access to 70% of credit and debit accounts in the U.S. through their partners. There is reason to believe Mastercard is not the only credit company that Google has deals with. Although it sounds like an invasion of privacy, users are apparently able to turn off this feature through “Web and App Activity” on their Google account. Mastercard has denied that any personal information has been shared with third-party vendors. When questioned about the transfer of personal data, a Microsoft spokesperson said, “No individual transaction or personal data is provided. That delivers on the expectation of privacy from both consumers and merchants around the world. In processing a transaction, we see the retailer’s name and the total amount of the consumer’s purchase, but not specific items.”
