Google Chrome has launched a built-in monitoring and ad-curation platform, “Privacy Sandbox,” which became generally available on September 7. The platform was initially made available to a limited number of users but is now accessible to approximately 97%.
Privacy experts have critiqued the new tracking mechanism. Google, however, stated in its announcement that Privacy Sandbox must be implemented to eradicate third-party cookies and fingerprinting.
Over 80% of websites use Google’s Adsense service to generate advertisements on their pages, according to business analytics platform 6sense. To effectively target consumer advertisements, Adsense embeds cookies in the user’s browser.
These cookies monitor the behavior of users as they navigate from site to site, collecting information that can be used to determine which products they may be interested in purchasing. Because Google generates these cookies and not the visited website, they are commonly called “third-party cookies.”
Microsoft Ads and other competing ad platforms utilize third-party cookies.
Privacy advocates have criticized embedding third-party cookies, and some users have sought methods to block them. Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Brave’s Brave browsers block third-party cookies by default. Users of Chrome can also stop these cookies via the preferences menu.
In a January 2020 blog post, Google argued that browsers should only block third-party cookies by default once an alternative monitoring system is developed.
The post states, “Some browsers have responded to these concerns by blocking third-party cookies, but we believe this has unintended consequences that can negatively impact both users and the web ecosystem.”
According to Google, blocking third-party cookies may result in “[encouraging] the use of opaque techniques such as fingerprinting (an invasive workaround to replace cookies), which can reduce user privacy and control.”
The September 7 announcement reiterates these earlier claims:
“Without viable privacy-preserving alternatives to third-party cookies, such as the Privacy Sandbox, we risk reducing access to information for all users, and incentivizing invasive tactics such as fingerprinting.”
The new Privacy Sandbox platform of Google Chrome enables the tracking of user data within the browser itself. Google believes this will increase privacy because it eliminates the need for third-party cookies. Google emphasized, however, that it will begin barring third-party cookies by default at a later date.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy advocacy organization, argued that an earlier iteration of the Privacy Sandbox did little to improve privacy because it continued to track user behavior, albeit within the browser rather than via cookies. In some ways, the Privacy Sandbox may be more intrusive than third-party cookies, according to the group.
Privacy Sandbox can be disabled via three distinct settings within the “Ad privacy” menu, as revealed by the new Chrome interface.
Brave browser also implements a platform dubbed “Brave Ads,” which tracks users’ behavior. This feature is turned off by default; if users opt-in, they are compensated in Basic Attention Token (BAT) for viewing advertisements.
