As long as your Google account settings allow it-that is, as long as location tracking is enabled through your Location History and Web & App Activity settings in your Google account-Google can potentially know you made an offline purchase after seeing an online ad. You open Google Maps to get the best route to Macy’s, and you buy the shoes in the store. A few days later, you’re downtown running errands, and you remember the shoes. Let’s say you’re signed into your Google account in your web browser and you click on a Google ad for a pair of sneakers from Macy’s. In other words, Google follows your offline activity to see if their online ads work. Google’s ‘store visits conversion’ tracking, for example, helps its advertising clients see how their ads influence physical store visits by linking your interaction with ads to your location history. Your location, specifically, is crucial to discerning who you are, what you do, and what you buy or might want to buy. But Google also uses this information to make money. For instance, Google uses your location to show you local search results. Tracking user activity can make certain products and services more convenient. In the US, there are few restrictions that prevent companies like Google from harvesting location data as they please, and once your information is shared, you can’t delete it or get it back. And while Google likes to reassure you that it doesn't sell your data to third party advertisers, it doesn’t need to Google’s ad clients pay for its targeting and retargeting services, not for the data itself. The more Google knows about you, including your search history and device location, the better it can target and sell ads. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, generated nearly $183 billion in revenue in 2020 of that, more than 80 percent came from Google’s ads business. Google is a tech company whose business model is primarily based on online advertising. Thankfully, there are ways you can disable or restrict Google’s location tracking. If you use its devices, apps, and services, Google is following your movements and noting your whereabouts in order to serve you targeted ads online.
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