Okay, collective sigh of relief: Sandra Heikkinen of Google's Global Communications & Public Affairs group contacted me to alert me to the fact that Google's initiative with Compete isn't as scary as it seems on the surface.
Earlier today, I posted about a report from Marketing Vox about the fact that Google was making plans to target ads based on a user's FICO score, by working with Compete, which is said to have a database of about two million web users who apparently agreed to give out their credit scores when they applied for new credit cards.
Thankfully, this is not a situation where those people get special ads based on their credit score.
Rather, Google and Compete analyzed the clickstream of people who'd agreed to share their credit scores so that Google could build profiles of people like them - in other words, by analyzing their clickstreams, they knew essentially where people in various credit ranges surfed within the Google Content Network (GCN).
That (anonymous) data in hand, Google can then match its clients' ads to sites (and probably search words) that people in certain demographic segments use.
So this is not a case of "Oh, you have this credit score, so you get this ad."
It's a case of "Oh, you're visiting this site, so you're probably something like the other people in a 'focus group' that visited this site, too."
Google not only doesn't know who you are, but it's largely irrelevant - it's making an educated guess about the kind of person you are. Put another way, Google was profiling sites, not people.
Which, of course, is a completely different matter than targeting ads to specific individuals based on credit scores. This is basic research and profiling. Which was not as clear as it might have been in news reports, and I appreciate Heikkinen's follow up.
Here's a little more on the methodology Google and Compete used, which Heikkinen was nice enough to share:
Methodology:
Compete conducted a clickstream analysis on their opt-in panel of 2 million US online consumers, to associate FICO score categories with sites in the Google Content Network.
• The analysis took a look at the online behavior of Compete's opt-in panelists who shopped for or applied for a credit card online between January and March 2009, for the 30 days prior to the application and/or research.
• Compete, via a sister company that provides secure matching of certain characteristics (one of which is FICO scores) to anonymous/anonymized individuals in the Compete panel, segmented the opt-in panelists into one of three categories, based on their FICO score: Super Prime (720 and above), Prime (600 to 719), and Sub-Prime (below 600).
• Individual scores and personally identifiable information were not used by Compete, nor were they received by Google.
• Google provided Compete with a list of all sites in the Google Content Network.
• Compete compared how panelists in each FICO band searched and where the panelists spent time on the GCN, and ranked each GCN site based on its ability to reach consumers in particular FICO score bands.
• Google received information about the ranking/scoring of the GCN sites from Compete. Google did not receive any information about individuals or their credit scores.
Some general notes:
• Compete and Google did not attach individual FICO scores to its data.
• There are no plans for Google to use FICO related targeting for any of its products or offerings. We don't collect or serve ads based on personal information without user permission.
In short:
• Google did not get — and does not have — information about the credit scores of individuals.
• Google received information about the scoring/ranking of the GCN sites from Compete — not any information about the credit scores of individuals.
• The research has given Google more insight into the demographic(s) reached by GCN sites, without sacrificing privacy; individual data was not tracked or received by Google.
In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND, I look at pro's and cons to many new ways to target consumers, as well as new technologies that may soon give consumers the upper hand in keeping their privacy just that - private.
Fortunately, this is one case where privacy is not really at issue.
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