The credit card companies have an enormous amount of consumer data that they’re seeking to exploit either in the aggregate or in 1:1 marketing opportunities by connecting offline transactions to online ad targeting. A piece in the Wall Street Journal explains:
The two largest credit-card networks, Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc., are pushing into a new business: using what they know about people’s credit-card purchases for targeting them with ads online.
Their plans, if implemented, would represent not only a technological feat—tying people’s Internet lives with shopping activities—but also an erosion of the idea of anonymity on the Web. It’s an effort by the two companies to profit by selling access to the insights they gather about people with every credit-card transaction.
While I have no problem with consensual, opt-in marketing — offering a deal in exchange for personal information — the idea that credit card issuers would be tracking and selling customer data to the highest bidder is repellant.
The article continues with examples of what might happen under these targeting scenarios:
[A] holy grail would be to show, for instance, a weight-loss ad to a person who just swiped their card at a fast-food chain—then track whether that person bought the advertised products. Currently, Web ads generally are based on a person’s online behavior but not information tied to his or her identity or activities in the brick-and-mortar world.
In one particularly futuristic idea, a Visa patent application published this year describes incorporating information from DNA databanks, among other personal details, into profiles that could be used to target people online.
Again, I have no problem with opt-in targeting. But even the “anonymized” data probably won’t be that anonymous. I hope that online privacy regulations nip some of these schemes in the bud before they are allowed to propagate.
October 27th, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Realistically this will have to be an opt-in program… seems that the emerging standard is opt-in for 1:1, blatant of abuse of that will just drive legislation, but the interesting question will be how clear/rewarding the opt-in will be… banks can offer fee avoidance, CC companies points etc. What will the ‘selling’ price be? And yes the anonymized data can get pretty granular – likely residential block group, likely area of work place, age, gender etc. all from anonymous consumer movement patters, purchase history, and click throughs enabling pretty effective non opt-in targeting.
October 27th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
Yes. We’ll have to see what materializes. I would hope it’s opt-in. The anonymous data, as you say, can get pretty close to PII.
November 4th, 2011 at 2:48 pm
[...] starting to measure in-store conversions and tie those back to online promotions. There are some scary plans around credit card purchase tracking and the sale of personal data. But mobile payments/wallets [...]
November 4th, 2011 at 5:08 pm
[...] starting to measure in-store conversions and tie those back to online promotions. There are some scary plans around credit card purchase tracking and the sale of personal data. And mobile payments/wallets [...]