Google says it needs more time to build and test its ostensibly privacy-preserving ad technology, marketed as the “Privacy Sandbox.” So the advertising company has delayed its previous plan to block privacy-stealing third-party cookies in Chrome until 2024.
In January 2020, the internet search giant announced its intention to phase out support for third-party cookies by 2022, after cookie defenses implemented by rival browser makers led to a vote by censorship on cookie-based tracking and lawmakers began to pay more attention. to privacy and competition issues.
In the context of the web, cookies are files created by websites on the computers of their visitors. Third-party cookies are set to serve companies affiliated with the website publisher and, in addition to less objectionable uses, may be used to track web users as they visit different websites, which could infringe privacy expectations.
Google recognizes the need to heed the call for online privacy, but remains determined to preserve its ability to target ads, which the advertising giant insists are necessary to keep the Internet free. And so the chocolate factory has been devising Chrome browser APIs like Topics and FLEDGE as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative “so that publishers and developers can offer free content and grow their business in a way that preserve privacy.”
In other words, Chrome will drop third-party cookies, but will still offer mechanisms under the Privacy Sandbox brand for website owners and publishers to use to get an idea of who visits their pages so they can target those with ads.
Things have not gone as planned. In June 2021, Google pushed back its removal of cookies until 2023 due to objections from ad-tech rivals who raised competitive concerns with regulatory agencies and the problems of realizing its Sandbox privacy vision.
The American megacorp’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) API, for example, failed to deliver the promised privacy. Researchers found that it could be used to track people. So Google reworked its code and created a successor called Topics, which began testing in April alongside the FLEDGE API. Other privacy testing APIs such as the Closed Frameworks API and the Federated Credential Management API are also being evaluated in a browser testing process known as source testing. In August, Google hopes to make these APIs more available and continue testing next year.
Used to developing web technology at its own pace and leaving rival browser makers with little choice but to follow to maintain compatibility, a practice Facebook articulates as “move fast and break things,” Google now finds itself moving- be careful and slow down while searching. approval
On Wednesday, Anthony Chavez, vice president of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, said developers, publishers, vendors and regulators have asked for more time to evaluate and test Privacy Sandbox technology before the company removes support for third-party cookies in your Chrome browser. And having made commitments to the UK Competition and Markets Authority that it will engage with stakeholders, Google has every reason to deliver.
“This deliberate approach to the transition from third-party cookies ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques like fingerprinting,” Chavez said.
Chávez said the Sandbox privacy APIs should be generally available in Chrome in the third quarter of 2023. “As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to start removing third-party cookies in Chrome during the second half of 2024,” he said.
The Register asked Google if its cookie opt-out date could happen again, and a spokesperson said the company has nothing to add beyond its blog post. However, the Chocolate Factory’s privacy FAQ acknowledges that the dates posted on its timeline are subject to change.
In an email to The Register, Pete Snyder, senior director of privacy at rival browser maker Brave Software, dismissed Google’s effort to remake targeted advertising for the post-cookie era.
“For more than two years, Google has been telling the web a false but comforting story: that tracking-based advertising companies can continue to operate largely as they are, and that the changes the web needs are minor and incremental. ” said Snyder. “Privacy-minded companies led by Brave have been shouting the opposite: that real privacy requires fundamental change, and that the Privacy Sandbox is not that.”
“In short, Google has created an unsolvable dilemma for itself; Google is addicted to tracking, but Google also knows that web tracking is going on, both for legal and ethical reasons. Unfortunately, instead of making the hard changes that are needed . to become truly private, Google has once again (and yet again) kicked the can down the road. The result is that Google continues to knowingly and intentionally subject its users to blatant privacy harm.” ®