Google has postponed to mid-2023, for a period of three months, its Privacy Sandbox plan to gradually delete third-party cookies in its Chrome browser.
Google’s Chrome browser offered its Privacy Sandbox plan in 2019, and proposed to move towards tracking users by cohorts rather than individually to address privacy concerns about online user tracking by experts in the field. marketing. It initially planned to start blocking third-party cookies in 2022.
An intermediate solution?
One of the main tools for this new style of user tracking on the web was FLoC, or Federated Learning of Cohorts. This new tool still allows targeted advertising, but, according to Google, improves the protection of end-user privacy. FLoC places users in interest groups.
Google sees FLoC as an intermediary solution that improves privacy while allowing advertising to be served on the web, as is the case today.
Chromium-based browser makers Brave and Vivaldi objected to the first iteration of FLoC. Others opposed it because Google’s system could promote its own advertising activities. Microsoft, which owns Chromium-based Edge, Bing and LinkedIn, is not opposed to the idea of FLoC or something similar and is arguing for an ad-supported web.
FLoC does nothing to prevent browser fingerprinting
An online privacy expert recently explained to that while FLoC is an improvement over third-party cookies, it does nothing to prevent browser fingerprinting, which does not rely on third-party cookies but still allows marketers to track users across multiple websites.
“Following our engagement with the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and in accordance with the commitments we have offered, Chrome could phase out third-party cookies over a three-month period, from mid-2023 to end of 2023, ”writes Vinay Goel, director of privacy engineering for Google Chrome, in a new blog post.
FLoC is a technique that can be compared to fingerprinting, with Google assigning a FLoC ID to groups of Chrome users with similar interests. This solution preserves a certain confidentiality by letting individuals “hide in the crowd” while allowing the delivery of targeted ads for advertisers.
Regarding the new calendar, Vinay Goel specifies that Google had to move forward at a “responsible” pace: “and by providing technology that preserves privacy, we, as an industry, can help ensure that cookies are not replaced by other forms of individual monitoring, and discourage the rise of covert approaches such as fingerprinting ”.
Many stages
Vinay Goel adds that Google has completed testing on its first iteration of FLoC. It has been tested in the USA, Australia, India and other markets, but not in the EU. “We plan to wrap up this original FLoC trial in the coming weeks and incorporate the feedback, before moving on to further testing in the ecosystem,” he says. “Once the development process is complete, the selected technologies will be widely deployed. They will be launched in Chrome and ready for large-scale use on the web. “
Google has described two stages for the evolution of Privacy Sandbox and FLoC. At the end of 2022, it will prepare the sector for the abandonment of third-party cookies.
During the first step, publishers and the advertising industry will have time to migrate their services. Google expects this stage to last nine months and will carefully monitor adoption and feedback before moving on to stage two.
In the second phase, which will begin in mid-2023, Google Chrome will phase out support for third-party cookies over a three-month period, ending at the end of 2023.
Source: .com
