Google Tracks Everything You Do, Even OfflineChris Dougherty The new Google AdWords feature, called Estimated Total Conversions, is aimed at advertisers that use the platform to serve their ads to you while you browse the Internet. The idea behind the new technology is to track a user from the time they are served an advertisement, until the time they walk into a brick and mortar store, or shop online in order to purchase the advertised product. Google uses the following pitch when selling the new feature to advertisers: Google has the ability to access many types of user data from Android apps as well as Google branded apps for the Apple iOS including Google search, Gmail, Google Maps and the Chrome web browser. If a person is using any of these apps while they are shopping, or happens to have them running in the background, Google can use that data to pinpoint the users location and see if they are in a store or other place of business. So if you were on your laptop searching for a new television, and you were presented with a Best Buy advertisement in the search results, Google could tell if you walked into, or called a local Best Buy an hour later to make the purchase. You would only need to have your mobile device along for the ride, Google would be recording the entire process. This would be an example of Googles Cross Device Conversion technology. Android users give permission for Google to track them in this manner when they opt-in to use location services on their smartphones Options menu. iPhone users allow this behavior when they agree to allow location services for apps like Google Maps and Gmail. Online tracking is nothing new, however Google has taken this a step further by continuing its tracking efforts into the real world. About the author 