Google reportedly ran a secret project called ‘Project Bernanke’, which relied on offering data collected from advertisers using its ad exchange for the benefit of the company’s own advertising system The Wall Street Journal report. First discovered by news thread MLEX service, the name of the project is visible in an improper document filed by Google as part of an antitrust lawsuit in Texas.
Since then, a federal judge has had Google reaffirm the document under sealing. But according to the Magazine“Bernanke” was not disclosed to outside advertisers, and it was profitable for Google, which generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the company. Texas filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in December, claiming that the search giant was using a competition method in which “Bernanke” played a major role.
Google writes in the unshared submission that data from Project Bernanke “is comparable to data maintained by other buying tools”, according to the Magazine. The company has had access to historical data about bids made by Google Ads, changing the bids of its customers and increasing the customers’ chances of auctioning ad impressions, which harms competing advertising tools. Texas quoted in court documents an internal 2013 submission in which Google said Project Bernanke would generate $ 230 million in revenue for that year.
Why Google chose the secret project ‘Bernanke’ is not clear. Ben Bernanke, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, is probably the most famous Bernanke in the public sphere.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.