Google Bans Apple Card From Advertising Platform

Google doesn’t want customers to use virtual card numbers, and that includes the one Apple Card uses. An anonymous person writes about their experience.

Last week I received my Apple Card and decided to use it on my Google Ads account for another project. Getting a little bit of daily cash back for my meager ad spend was attractive. Within a couple of hours of updating my payment method my account had become suspended for suspicious payment activity.

I’m writing this to warn anyone else that intended to use the card online that you may experience… difficulties. And if you’re planning on using the Apple Card for anything important, think again.

It makes sense, on the premise that tracking companies like Google would oppose private measures like the Apple Card. I assume other virtual cards like Privacy.com would suffer the same fate.

Comparing Apple Card's Privacy to Other Credit Cards

Geoffrey Fowler compared an Amazon credit card with Apple Card to see which one is more private. The knee jerk response is to say Apple, and it’s true that Apple does have more privacy than others. But when it comes to the Apple Card, that privacy only appears under certain circumstances.

Despite a federal privacy law covering cards, I found that six types of businesses could mine and share elements of my purchase, multiplied untold times by other companies they might have passed it to. Credit cards are a spy in your wallet — and it’s time that we add privacy, alongside rewards and rates, to how we evaluate them.

Bottom line: Neither Apple nor Goldman Sachs collects or shares your data. But retailers and card networks like Mastercard can still collect and sell your purchase data.