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.
Over my dead body.
MasterCard doesn't collect people's names or addresses when processing credit-card transactions. That makes it tricky to directly link people's card activity to their online profiles, ad executives said. The company's document describes its "extensive experience" linking "anonymized purchased attributes to consumer names and addresses" with the help of third-party companies.
"Extensive experience", huh. That's not worrisome.
The trove of details about people's credit-card activity would be a gold mine, ad executives say, because it illuminates a person's budget, where they shop, what they buy and how they spend their time. "The combination of actual purchase behavior with attitudinal and demographic information provides an unparalleled understanding of the consumer," MasterCard's document says.
Unparalleled and downright scary. The whole article is full of other statements that are frightening.