Google 'Customer Match' means your email address is now for sale to the highest bidder

You just need to be logged into Google and to have given your email address to a retailer

Google is close to rolling out a tool named "Customer Match" which, it appears, will combine a logged-in Google account with any email address handed by a customer to a retailer to create lists of addresses to target specific users with marketing material.

The search giant can sit comfortably with this arrangement, as the lists of emails are anonymised through the service, meaning Google keeps hold of the specific details and the retailer doesn't get them, but can use them to blind dump advertising into Google-based sessions in services such as YouTube, Gmail or basic search functions on the Google homepage.

The anonymised details can also be used for rough audience profiling based on the purchasing or browsing habits of the associated Google profiles with the addresses - something Google is calling "Similar Audiences".

It appears Customer Match is another response from Google to dwindling display advertising revenue, as companies attempt to find new ways to push adverts to users without depending on simple clicks of randomised ad banners.

"With Customer Match, your brand is right there, with the right message, at the moment your customer is most receptive. Only Google can help you do this to delight your most loyal customers in the moments that truly matter," summarised Sridhar Ramaswamy, senior vice president of ads and commerce at Google, writing on the company's AdWords blog.

In the same blog, Ramaswamy also reminded readers that "Universal App Campaigns" has now launched - a similar system that allows advertisers to "reach" their app users across Google Search, Google Play, YouTube and the Google Display Network (which serves ads to nice partners such as news sites and blogs) has just launched.

"All you need to do is give us your desired cost-per-install and we do the rest," says the blog.

"Universal App Campaigns are the one-stop-shop campaign type that scales your reach and maximizes Android app installs across Google's entire suite of ad platforms.

"We've automated campaign set-up by pulling in your app images, videos, and app description directly from your Google Play store listing to generate ad formats that look amazing wherever they're placed."

It seems there are few places left to hide from Google on the internet.