Targeting advertising in S Group and S Bank’s external channels

The S Group and S Bank purchase targeted online advertising from media partners, which allows us to reach our customers also elsewhere on the internet in addition to our own channels. If you consent to targeted advertising on S Group and S Bank’s external channels, you will see targeted advertising from S Group and S Bank when, for example, reading an online magazine, watching a live stream, or browsing social media. Targeting does not affect the number of S Group and S Bank advertisements you see on the internet, but it helps us show you advertisements that you may be interested in. Targeting is never directed at individual customers. Instead, we target a large audience consisting of a large number of customers. The target group can be formed, for example, from customers belonging to a specific customer segment. We form our target groups ourselves, and our media partners do not know the criteria used to form the target group.The media partners we use vary depending on each advertising campaign, but may include:

Meta Ireland, with whom we act as joint controllers in advertising targeting. Meta Ireland’s privacy policy
Google Ireland Limited
Sanoma Media Finland Oy
Alma Media Oyj

We use so-called target group lists for targeting, to reach users who are also our customers on each media partner’s service. We upload the target group list we have created to a matching tool provided by our media partner. The target group list consists of pseudonymized, i.e., encrypted, customer identifiers. The encrypted customer identifier is created using an encryption algorithm based on the customer’s email address or phone number. The customer cannot be identified solely by the encrypted customer ID. The media partner compares the encrypted target group we have provided with the encrypted IDs it has created based on its own user data to find matches between the IDs. If a match is found, the encrypted customer ID ends up in the final target group, which is shown an advertisement for S Group or S Bank in the media partner’s service. If no match is found for the encrypted customer ID among the media partner’s IDs, the media partner deletes the encrypted customer ID and the ID is not included in the target group. S Group or S Bank does not receive information about which of the encrypted customer IDs delivered to the media partner ended up in the final target group.The target group formed from encrypted identifiers can sometimes also be expanded by showing the advertisement to media partner users who the media partner believes to be similar to the users in the original target group.In addition to targeting advertising, our media partners, such as Meta, can measure the effectiveness of S Group advertising displayed on their services. Meta measures effectiveness by combining encrypted customer IDs from the S Group’s advertising campaign audience with information received from the S Group that the encrypted customer ID has made a purchase. The media partner is not provided with information about which products or services have been purchased, only information that a purchase has been made. Advertising measurement helps us understand whether the advertising shown to audiences consisting of our customers has been relevant to them. Advertising measurement does not target individual encrypted customer IDs, but is carried out at the audience level. S-Bank does not measure the effectiveness of advertising displayed on Meta’s or other media partners’ services in this way.We carefully select our media partners and draw up written agreements with them for targeted online advertising services. Our media partners only process customer IDs belonging to the target group for the purpose of targeting, displaying, and measuring our advertising in their own services. Media partners delete the personal data we provide after completing online marketing.Where applicable, we act as joint controllers of personal data with each media partner when processing data related to the targeting of our advertising on that media partner’s service. We have entered into written agreements with all media partners acting as joint controllers regarding the processing of jointly processed personal data, such as encrypted customer identifiers and information related to the display of advertisements. We have agreed with Meta Ireland that Meta Ireland is responsible for the exercise of the rights of data subjects (rights under Articles 15-20 of the GDPR) in relation to personal data stored by Meta Ireland after joint processing. For more information on Meta Ireland’s processing of personal data and the legal basis for it, as well as how to exercise your rights as a data subject against Meta Ireland, please refer to Meta Ireland’s privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy. The media partner may also process data collected from the display of advertisements for the development of its own services and targeted online advertising. In such processing, the media partner acts as the controller and informs you about the processing in its own privacy policy or other description of the processing of personal data.You can choose whether to give your consent to targeted advertising in S Group and S Bank’s external channels. You can also withdraw your consent at any time in the communication settings of S-mobile or your S-user account. Your consent information will be stored in the joint register of SOK and S-Bank, which are part of the S Group. Information about the joint register and the processing of personal data by the S Group and S Bank, as well as your rights, can be found in our privacy statements:

S Group co-op member and customer register
S Bank customer register – available only in Finnish and Swedish

Please note S-Bank currently only uses consent related to Meta for targeting in the S Group and S-Bank’s external channels. Other consents for targeting in external channels will begin to be used as a legal basis for the processing of personal data during 2026.Find out more about marketing permissions.