According to Global Stats, Google and its chrome users are holding 65% of the global market share which makes…
According to Global Stats, Google and its chrome users are holding 65% of the global market share which makes them dominant. Chrome is the most frequently used browser among all. Chrome browser allows access to the third party cookies to collect data for the advertisement purposes, however, Google is now planning to phase out these third-party cookies. Earlier in 2019, Google announced to phase them out in 2021, which it is delaying now until late 2023. What’s more, it announced and promised to its users that they would not build any other way to track the people and their identity while surfing around the web. However, Google will still collect the first party data from its users directly.
Privacy is the main concern nowadays for user and Google says that the use of third party cookies puts the future of the web at risk. In addition to it, it says that the user is not trusting the internet or advertiser. Users feel that their privacy is invaded on the chrome as cookies allow to collect their personal data including their name, address, and even credit card information. This data is stored in the user’s browser and some cookies allows outside parties to access it. This increased the level of mistrust between users and Google. It should be more privacy oriented web.
What are third party cookies and how do they work?
Third party cookies are implemented on the website by someone other than the site’s owner primarily used for remarketing. These cookies have access to the advertiser to track you as you move between different sites. Such cookies are mainly set by advertising companies to reach their target audience. These cookies are 25 years old technology which wasn’t developed keeping the users privacy in mind and for decade, advertisers have relied on third-party cookies to track users on the web and retarget them through advertising.
Advertising is the basic and main way for many companies on the Internet (including Google) to generate revenue. Google is not getting rid of the targeted ads. It just tries to maintain the identity of individuals and locate them in groups with similar interests.
Privacy Sandbox:
While keeping the user privacy and new passing laws by the government over the individual’s privacy Google took the initiative and launched the privacy sandbox which is collaborative and open source effort to develop a set of new technologies in form of web standards. Privacy Sandbox is an initiative to create network technologies that protect users’ online privacy. The main purpose of the privacy sandbox is to hide the identity of the individual user into a large crowd of “cohorts” and an initiative to preserve the open web.
What are “cohorts”?
Google has already begun testing the technology named federated learning of cohorts (FLoC) . It is an initiative developed as a part of Google’s privacy sandbox. This technology will group the users into “cohorts” according to their web browsing history for the purpose of valuable internet based advertisement.
David Temkin, director of product management, ads privacy and trust, at Google said that the federated learning of cohorts (FLoC) will be the key part of Google’s future strategy and technology to target ads.
Why is Google delaying the phase-out?
Chrome is still developing and testing the privacy sandbox solutions. This is a testing process all the pieces of the privacy sandbox will fall into place in 2023. Many of the privacy sandbox proposals were created to support publisher and the ads ecosystem. Google is taking time because privacy sandbox is still going through some tests.
Also Read: What is a Consent Management Platform (CMP) and why is it required for publishers?
