Posted on Sunday, 28th November 2010 by Rebecca Ortiz

The company has a strange name that sounds like something out of a science fiction movie or your high school calculus class, and you have probably never heard of it and know nothing about what it does. But you can be quite sure that the company named “[x+1] Inc.” knows a thing or two about you.

The company’s own CEO was quoted in the press saying “We never don’t know anything about someone.” That manner of speaking is about as strange as the company name, but what he meant is that his company always knows at least something about everyone – and there is nobody that it does not know something about, including you.

Because of that unique quality the [x+1] might be really cool to “friend” on Facebook or to hire to do undercover work for the CIA. But the revenues of [x+1] don’t come from spy agencies or popularity with the public, but from major credit card issuers. Credit card companies use the sophisticated mathematical formulas the company has created to build profiles of potential credit card customers. The [x+1]has an uncanny talent for doing that, and credit card companies pay it tons of money to figure out just what makes card customers tick.

For example, just by clicking on a credit card website where the [x+1] software was at work it was possible for [x+1] to correctly identify various demographics about an anonymous visitor to the site. It immediately guessed where the person lives, where they shop, the fact that they have children, and approximately how much money they make.

But to call this guesswork would be inaccurate, because [x+1]can do it over and over again – on demand – in a way that makes it seem like a fantastic magic mental trick performed by David Blaine. The company figured out that another fellow was an architect, lives in Nashville, has no kids, likes to travel, and buys used cars. The list of profiles goes on and on, but those are just some examples that were cited in the media based on a demonstration of the company’s expertise.

Of course other companies have been successfully tracking the spending habits of customers on the Internet for a long time. If you shop on Amazon or eBay, for example, you may notice that the company offers you personalized recommendations for new products based on what you have purchased in the past. But the [x+1]is able to crunch thousands of pieces of Internet-accessible date on a person within an instant and then quickly draw a surprisingly accurate profile of the person and make a recommendation on the spot.

That’s exactly what happens to many consumers who visit credit card sites like the one operated by Capital One – who uses the services of [x+1] to decide which credit cards it should show to a first-time visitor. By choosing the right card – matched to that person’s own unique profile of consumer habits and needs – companies like Capital One raise the chances that the customer will like what they see and sign up for the card. Do that kind of matchmaking incorrectly and that person who is quickly browsing the web might just click away and go sign up for a credit card on a competitor’s site. But since [x+1] rarely gets it wrong the chances are very high that the card you get shown first will be a favorite.

The [x+1] company does this kind of thing by using rather sneaky but nonetheless legal tracking technologies that are now present all over the Internet. They may not know your name but they can figure out things like your marital status, your income, and your favorite bookstore just by doing a statistical analysis. Because the company has the technology to perform these complex operations in the blink of an eye, your profile can be created and then used to offer you products you’ll probably prefer within the time it takes you to click your computer mouse.

A Wall Street Journal investigation found that the technology works this way: A visitor goes to a credit card company web site to shop for a credit card. Software from [x+1] instantly scans the information passed between that website and the person’s computer, with the ability to scan through thousands of lines of information-rich code. In a Wall Street Journal experiment they captured and processed more than 5,000 lines of code containing information about the potential customer. Then the person’s zip code is deciphered and the web page visitor is suddenly presented with some credit card programs that are especially suited to that individual.

The bottom line is that you may be really surprised at how useful a credit card you see on a website happens to be, based on your own lifestyle, credit rating, spending habits, and personal tastes as a consumer. But don’t be, because it isn’t magic – its modern technology at work to help your credit card company target you as a prime candidate. That can be highly beneficial to you as a consumer, but it might also give you the creeps.

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