London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, May 31, 2025

Google promises to drop personalised ad tracking

Google promises to drop personalised ad tracking

Google has promised not to develop any new way of tracking individual users for adverts once it phases out its current method.

The tech giant is one of the world's largest advertising sellers and also owns the world's most popular web browser, Chrome.

But it is following other browser providers by eliminating third-party tracking cookies.

That move is already being looked at by the UK's competition authority.

The Competition and Markets Authority said in January that Google's plan to remove the cookies - which would effectively share less information with advertisers - could have a "significant impact" on the advertising market and news websites.

One group of marketers opposed to the idea claims that Google will gain an advantage by eliminating such cookies, because it has other ways of obtaining personal information from users.

What's in a cookie?


Cookies temporarily store small amounts of information about what a user is doing on a website and are an important part of the modern internet.

For example, they can "remember" things, such as what is in an online shopping basket or whether a user is logged in.

But a third-party tracking cookie can be used to "follow" a user from site to site, so a website can "know" that you were shopping around for a type of product - like clothes or shoes - and advertise those things to you elsewhere.

Those are the type that Google is phasing out, following the lead of some major competitor web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox and Apple's Safari, which already block them by default.

What does Google say?


Some critics had been concerned that Google's plan to stop these cookies would prevent its rivals from building useful catalogues of ad targeting information - but that Google itself might still be able to do so.

The company appeared to tackle that idea directly in its new announcement.

"Today, we're making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build [alternative] identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products," the company said in a blog post.

It said the knock-on effect was that other providers could end up offering "a level of user identity for ad tracking across the web that we will not" (although Firefox and Safari already block the offending cookies by default).

"We don't believe these solutions will meet rising consumer expectations for privacy, nor will they stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions, and therefore aren't a sustainable long-term investment," Google said.

But that portrayal has been challenged by industry group Marketers for an Open Web, who argue Google will have an unfair advantage.

Director James Rosewill said Google hasn't promised to stop personalised marketing, or gathering of data, inside its own products - which would involve changing its product terms and conditions.

Regulators still need to ensure competition, through legislation, he said, or "advertisers will have little choice as to where they spend their money".

And there are fewer privacy advantages for the average user, he argued.

"You have one large trillion-dollar company that effectively, through an unfair contract... tracks you more of the time, the only difference is you're going to be logged in, and part of their walled garden."

"How does that make people more private, or more secure, versus something that doesn't have directly identifiable information - their name, their email address - it just uses a random string of characters?"

What might happen instead?


The shift away from cookies has been prompted by years of tightening regulation and increased consumer awareness.

But stopping the use of tracking cookies does not prevent all personalised tracking, as the industry has come up with creative solutions to generate personalised data.

So-called "fingerprinting", for example, tries to use a huge range of details about your device - the type of phone or computer, browser version, language, IP address, or even what fonts you have installed - to identify the machine.

The advertiser might not know the person's name, but it can still "follow" that unique fingerprint around the web.

Google, which will continue to sell ads, argues that it and other companies need to come up with a solution that "delivers results" for advertisers.

It now says that people should not have to be tracked invasively in order to "get the benefits" of targeted advertising.

One way of doing so, Google said in its blog post, was to "hide individuals within large crowds of people with common interests", so that an individual person's browsing history would be difficult to figure out.

Comments

Oh ya 4 year ago
Just start using Brave as a search engine and you can stop all of them forever

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Satirical Sketch Sparks Political Spouse Feud in South Korea
Indonesia Quarry Collapse Leaves Multiple Dead and Missing
South Korean Election Video Pulled Amid Misogyny Outcry
Asian Economies Shift Away from US Dollar Amid Trade Tensions
Netflix Investigates Allegations of On-Set Mistreatment in K-Drama Production
US Defence Chief Reaffirms Strong Ties with Singapore Amid Regional Tensions
Vietnam Faces Strategic Dilemma Over China's Mekong River Projects
Malaysia's First AI Preacher Sparks Debate on Islamic Principles
White House Press Secretary Criticizes Harvard Funding, Advocates for Vocational Training
France to Implement Nationwide Smoking Ban in Outdoor Spaces Frequented by Children
Meta and Anduril Collaborate on AI-Driven Military Augmented Reality Systems
Russia's Fossil Fuel Revenues Approach €900 Billion Since Ukraine Invasion
U.S. Justice Department Reduces American Bar Association's Role in Judicial Nominations
U.S. Department of Energy Unveils 'Doudna' Supercomputer to Advance AI Research
U.S. SEC Dismisses Lawsuit Against Binance Amid Regulatory Shift
Alcohol Industry Faces Increased Scrutiny Amid Health Concerns
Italy Faces Population Decline Amid Youth Emigration
U.S. Goods Imports Plunge Nearly 20% Amid Tariff Disruptions
OpenAI Faces Competition from Cheaper AI Rivals
Foreign Tax Provision in U.S. Budget Bill Alarms Investors
Trump Accuses China of Violating Trade Agreement
Gerry Adams Wins Libel Case Against BBC
Russia Accuses Serbia of Supplying Arms to Ukraine
EU Central Bank Pushes to Replace US Dollar with Euro as World’s Main Currency
Chinese Woman Dies After Being Forced to Visit Bank Despite Critical Illness
President Trump Grants Full Pardons to Reality TV Stars Todd and Julie Chrisley
Texas Enacts App Store Accountability Act Mandating Age Verification
U.S. Health Secretary Ends Select COVID-19 Vaccine Recommendations
Vatican Calls for Sustainable Tourism in 2025 Message
Trump Warns Putin Is 'Playing with Fire' Amid Escalating Ukraine Conflict
India and Pakistan Engage Trump-Linked Lobbyists to Influence U.S. Policy
U.S. Halts New Student Visa Interviews Amid Enhanced Security Measures
Trump Administration Cancels $100 Million in Federal Contracts with Harvard
SpaceX Starship Test Flight Ends in Failure, Mars Mission Timeline Uncertain
King Charles Affirms Canadian Sovereignty Amid U.S. Statehood Pressure
Trump Threatens 25% Tariff on iPhones Amid Dispute with Apple CEO
Putin's Helicopter Reportedly Targeted by Ukrainian Drones
Liverpool Car Ramming Incident Leaves Multiple Injured
Australia Faces Immigration Debate Following Labor Party Victory
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Founder Warns Against Trusting Regime in Nuclear Talks
Macron Dismisses Viral Video of Wife's Gesture as Playful Banter
Cleveland Clinic Study Questions Effectiveness of Recent Flu Vaccine
Netanyahu Accuses Starmer of Siding with Hamas
Junior Doctors Threaten Strike Over 4% Pay Offer
Labour MPs Urge Chancellor to Tax Wealthy Over Cutting Welfare
Publication of UK Child Poverty Strategy Delayed Until Autumn
France Detains UK Fishing Vessel Amid Post-Brexit Tensions
Calls Grow to Resume Syrian Asylum Claims in UK
Nigel Farage Pledges to Reinstate Winter Fuel Payments
Boris and Carrie Johnson Welcome Daughter Poppy
×