Google Warns Against Blocking ‘Cookies’ Entirely, Triggering Criticism
Google
Warns Against Blocking ‘Cookies’ Entirely, Triggering Criticism
Tech company proposes
“privacy sandbox” to set new standards after promising in May to let users
restrict cookies
By Patience
Haggin Aug. 26, 2019 7:41 pm ET
After promising to offer tools to let
users limit “cookies,” tiny files that help internet and advertising companies
track users, Alphabet Inc.’s Google
suggested it won’t go any further, saying in a blog post that blocking cookies
entirely could be counterproductive for user privacy.
The post from late last week has drawn criticism in recent days
from some privacy advocates who say Google’s Chrome internet browser should
catch up to the stricter practices of rivals Firefox and Safari.
Ad tech companies and some digital publishers are wary of a
major crackdown on cookies, saying it would hurt their businesses.
In its post, Google said blocking cookies will encourage the
rise of other, more nefarious methods of tracking internet users.
These include so-called “fingerprinting” through which sites
collect various signals about users, such as the fonts on their screens or the
devices they use, to keep track of unique individuals as they browse the
internet.
Google said it was exploring new privacy technologies to enable
personalized ads without compromising privacy, in a framework it called the
“privacy sandbox.”
As part of that initiative, Google proposed a so-called “privacy
budget” that would impose a cap on the amount of data any site could request
from a browser that might be used to identify a user.
Cookies are small text files stored in internet browsers that
let companies follow users around the internet, gathering information such as
which sites they visit and what ads they view or click. Hundreds of digital ad
companies rely on them to collect user data.
Google’s latest comments on the technology surprised some in the
industry who assumed the company was working toward phasing out cookies after
remarks Google made in May.
The company promised at that time to launch new tools to
restrict cookies. Those tools are going forward, but a full-on cookie crackdown
isn’t happening.
“Many folks were expecting Google to do something. When major
competitors have come out with a much praised user feature, you can imagine
they would come out with something that competes with that,” said Jonathan
Mayer, an assistant professor of computer science at Princeton University.
“This notion that blocking cookies is bad for privacy is completely
disingenuous.”
“I interpret the announcement as giving Google an opportunity to
try to show forward momentum on privacy while at the same time not doing
anything that would negatively impact its own business interests,” said Jason
Kint, chief executive of Digital Content Next, a trade association for online
publishers that has argued online tech platforms are harming competition and
consumers. Google’s digital ad business uses data on users collected partially
through cookies.
Chetna Bindra, Google’s senior product manager for trust and
privacy, said the criticism “misstates the intent of what we’re trying to do.
It’s more about broadening this conversation beyond cookies.”
The debate extends to the issue of who benefits financially from
browser cookies. Google cited its own research showing that publishers lose an
average of 52% of their advertising revenue when their readers block cookies.
The results differ substantially from an academic study published
this spring, which found that publishers only receive about 4% more ad revenue
for an ad impression that has a cookie enabled than for one that doesn’t.
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