Google is backtracking on its plan to phase out advertising cookies in Chrome, crushing privacy experts’ hopes for serious change in digital advertising.
The search major has announced that, contrary to earlier expectations, Chrome will continue to store third-party cookies – the small data files placed by advertisers and websites that track users’ behaviour across the internet and deliver personalised ads.
Privacy advocates voiced disappointment at the decision, noting that Chrome – the world’s most widely-used browser – had passed up an opportunity to chart a new course for online advertising.
Online advertising relies on individuals’ online behaviour to buy and sell ad space.
“This creates a data free-for-all,” said Johnny Ryan, a director at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
In an attempt to strengthen user privacy, Google announced in 2019 that it intended to block advertising cookies in Chrome and replace them with what it called a “Privacy Sandbox” – a system designed to group users into interest-based categories for advertisers, reducing the need for individual tracking.
Google’s reversal of its plans – after nearly four years developing the Privacy Sandbox – was attributed to “divergent perspectives” from industry and regulators, according to vice president of of Privacy Sandbox.
Competitors had previously warned that blocking advertising cookies would cut off industry from parts of its critical data supply.
They also argued that it could have solidified Google’s dominant position, as the company – unlike many of its smaller rivals – can still access other user data via other services such as YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Search, giving it a significant competitive edge.
Since January 2021, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been closely monitoring developments around the Privacy Sandbox. A spokesperson said that the CMA was pleased to see Google rolling back its cookie phase out, noting that “competitors could have been unfairly shut out of digital advertising.”
Enforcement falls short
Privacy experts have criticised the latest developments as a step backwards, arguing that Chrome has wasted its chance to reshape the online advertising ecosystem.
“This means the loss of hope for improved privacy,” independent researcher Dr Lukasz Olejnik told Euractiv. He also warned of “a broader trend where privacy and data protection are increasingly deprioritised.”
For Ryan, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy Directive should already have limited the circulation of user data. Instead, he told Euractiv, competition authorities have been forced to step in – filling a gap where privacy enforcement has failed.
Meanwhile, a court in the US ruled last week that Google had created an illegal monopoly by controlling main elements of the adtech sector – a case similar to the European Commission’s own ongoing GoogleAd probe.
The GDPR and ePrivacy laws are outdated, Olejnik told Euractiv, adding that “technologists and policymakers lack the necessary thought leadership.”
He also cautioned that reopening the GDPR “risks not only softening data protection standards but also triggering the Olympic games of lobbying,” referring to the intense lobbying efforts that would likely follow.
(aw)