Ev
ery time we interact with any online site, data about us is stored. The more we interact with a website, the more information about us is retained. Google, one of the websites we use the most, has begun to dredge through the vast quantities of data about us it stores, in order to match credit card histories to things like browser, location and advertising histories, amongst others.
Despite the mingling between data sets from different corporations, Google claim that you private data remains anonymous, but for many people, the mere idea that Google and Facebook combine their large reserves of data to effectively profile their users, may be an unwelcome shock for their many users. And some companies even mix offline data with online, for example Facebook, who signed deals with companies like Experian to do just that.
After accumulating this data, Google can create a super-profile of its users. This is helpful because it allows Google to dictate terms to the many advertisers who use the site. Knowing the extensive viewing and purchasing histories of its users, they have an idea about who might be interested in buying a certain merchants product before the merchants themselves do.
Key to this is having easy access to location data. Using Android, Google can track your movements, which is what gives it such an advantage when it comes to identifying potential customers. Location data allows Google to insert itself into every transaction.