Google reportedly ran a secret project called “Project Bernanke” that relied on bidding data collected from advertisers using its ad exchange to benefit the company’s own ad system, The Wall Street Journal reported. First discovered by newswire service MLex, the name of the project was visible in an improperly unredacted document Google had filed as part of an antitrust lawsuit in Texas.
A federal judge has since let Google refile the document under seal. But according to the Journal, “Bernanke” was not disclosed to outside advertisers, and proved lucrative for Google, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the company. Texas filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in December, alleging that the search giant was using anticompetitive tactics in which “Bernanke” was a major part.
Google wrote in the unredacted filing that data from Project Bernanke was “comparable to data maintained by other buying tools,” according to the Journal. The company was able to access historical data about bids made through Google Ads, to change bids by its clients and boost the clients’ chances of winning auctions for ad impressions, putting rival ad tools at a disadvantage. Texas cited in court documents an internal presentation from 2013 in which Google said Project Bernanke would bring in $230 million in revenue for that year.
Why Google chose to name the secret project “Bernanke” is not clear. Ben Bernanke, who was chair of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, is probably the best-known Bernanke in the public sphere.
Google did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Sunday.
