Conversions API: Google’s answer to tracking you offline

Unless you take measures to block it, you are going to be tracked while using a web browser, typically through the use of cookies. Google is one company that does this across its entire range of services, and it’s very good at taking that (anonymous) data and generating revenue from it through targeted advertising.
You’d think such targeted advertising would be limited to what you do online, but it isn’t, and Google has just released a new API that makes it possible for them to link up your online activity with what you do offline, in the real world.
The new API is called Conversions. Rather than relying on data Google has gathered, Conversions allows retailers/advertisers to automatically upload their own collected information about your in-store conversions, call-tracking, and other offline activity such as which discounts were taking advantage of, how many returns were made, and even if fraud was committed.
Google will still have to keep this new data anonymous so that individuals cannot be knowingly tracked. However, combined with the company’s advertising arm DoubleClick, and the data it has collected about you already from your online activities, it makes for a very powerful and enhanced targeted advertising tool.
So what does the Conversions API actually mean in real terms? Well, before now if you searched for a new TV online Google would start showing your TV ads. If you went and bought a TV in a store you’d continue to get TV ads displayed by DoubleClick when you went back online. But with Conversions, DoubleClick can be updated so it knows you bought that TV offline, and the ads you see will change to show you products to compliment your TV instead.
If you notice this happening, it will probably feel like you are being closely tracked. But Google is just doing a very good job with the data it has. Ultimately, it’s likely this may even lead to you clicking more ads, or buying more stuff online, which is exactly what Google wants you to do.
More at the DoubleClick Search Blog, via Business Insider