No comment from Google as to why they do this.
But Google does it anyway, because it costs them less than that to implement.
edit: For instance, Facebook says each user is worth about $0.73 / user / month. [1]
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/28/how-much-...
> If you happen to live in Europe, including the UK, you’re only worth one-third of a North American to Facebook, at $4.50 every three months, while the “rest of the world”, which includes most developing nations are only worth $1.22 per user.
That's about $1.50 / user / month... which is higher than I thought. brb, going to start social network
4 dollars a month.
"Security researcher Mustafa Al-Bassam reported on Twitter that he "almost had a heart attack" when he walked into a McDonald's and was prompted on his phone to download the fast food restaurant's app."
Google makes most of its money selling your attention to marketers. This could easily be used to tailor ads.
Within 100 yards of Barnes and Noble? "Ding! Get 10% off your purchase when you present this QR code!"
Both of your comments seemed reasonable to me.
Over the last week or two any browser in my home not using an ad-blocker sees heaps of MuleSoft ads. Almost as though the ad network has noticed that my phone at work travels to my house and has created a linkage between the two.