Since personal customer data is sensitive business data, data encryption plays a central role in the use of customer matching lists.
Google Ads uses the SHA256 algorithm to ghana phone number list encrypt data. This algorithm is also used to encrypt cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The exact functionality of SHA256 is very complex and would go beyond the scope of this article. Basically, the algorithm converts a chain of characters, such as the combination of different user data, into a new chain of characters. This newly created chain is called a "hash". The hash of a particular character sequence is always unique.
So after both your own customer data and Google's data have been encrypted using the SHA256 algorithm, the resulting hashes can be compared. If the hashes match, that means your own customer data and the Google account data match.
The encryption only takes place in one direction, which means that individual people can no longer be clearly identified. With the matching hashes, you can now create your own target group in Google Ads that only contains people from your own customer data.
There are basically two ways in which your customer data can be made available to Google:
The data is hashed by the advertisers and uploaded already encrypted. This has the advantage that the unencrypted data does not have to be passed on to Google, but it requires the right know-how.
The data is uploaded unencrypted and hashed by Google. You can find out how Google handles unencrypted customer data here.
The data is hashed by the advertisers and uploaded already encrypted. This has the advantage that the unencrypted data does not have to be passed on to Google, but it requires the right know-how.
The data is uploaded unencrypted and hashed by Google. You can find out how Google handles unencrypted customer data here.