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Google has taken steps to clarify its approach to developing new technologies to replace third-party tracking cookies, an effort to privacy in the digital advertising chain.
At a press event attended by TechRadar ProGoogle’s President for EMEA, Matt Brittin, answered questions about the trajectory of the Privacy Sandbox project and criticism from privacy lawyers.
“Users want a web that is private and secure; we can see that in our search results. But if you want this whole thing to work, you need ads that work, because a subscription model for the web isn’t for everyone,” he said.
“It’s really about building a web that works for everyone. What we’re doing is making sure you can have privacy-safe, high-quality ads that work for the user and the advertiser — and we’re optimistic about that.”
FLoC, Topics and Android
Google first launched the Privacy Sandbox initiative in 2019, in recognition of the fact that the system underpinning its lucrative advertising business (powered by third-party cookies that track people around the web) creates opportunities for privacy breaches.
“Like any technology, cookies are neither good nor bad. It’s just how they’re used,” Brittin said. “The reason we have to move away from them is that they are increasingly being used in ways that infuriate consumers.”
The goal is to develop a collection of new systems and technologies that perform the same role as cookies, allowing advertisers to target netizens most likely to interact with their products, but without compromising user privacy to the same extent. endanger.
So far, achieving this goal has proved as difficult as it sounds. The first proposal, FLoCwas widely panned by privacy advocates, who rejected the system like sleight of hand.
In January, Google announced that it would replace FLoC with a similar system called subjects, which provides a way to serve ads based on broad categories of interest. The system relies on three weeks of browsing data, stored locally on the device, to put people into different categories, which in turn determine the types of ads the person sees. Web users can unsubscribe from a particular “topic” at any time through their web browser.
Despite constant criticismTopics appears to be the system Google will continue to emulate as it continues plans to drop third-party cookies. Topics is currently undergoing a trial, in addition to a number of separate APIs developed as part of the Privacy Sandbox initiative.
Google also recently announced it will extend Privacy Sandbox to Android, phasing out the advertising ID (a tracking system analogous to third-party cookies) in favor of alternatives that limit the sharing of user data with third parties and do not rely on cross-app tracking.
The cookie eradication deadline was recently pushed back until the second half of 2024, to give industry stakeholders additional time to prepare, and a similar date has been set for the shift of advertising IDs on Android.
The free and open web
Google’s typical response to criticism of its efforts is that targeted ads are critical to preserving the free and open internet. Without the ability to effectively target ads, content and services currently available for free would have to be paid to remain economically viable for the provider, the argument goes.
In response to questions from TechRadar Pro over criticism from privacy advocates, some of whom are calling on regulators to outright ban targeted advertising, Brittin followed a similar line of reasoning, citing figures from the IAB (opens in new tab) suggesting such a ban would wipe out up to $39 billion from the publishing market.
“If you want an affordable website, advertisers need to reach users. If you don’t want advertising, that’s the world of ad blockers and companies developing technologies that allow people to block anything, but that’s a sledgehammer that destroys the financing model of original content,” he said.
“An objection to relevant advertising is different from an objection to the use of personal data in ways people have not consented to – and here we would defend our approach very vigorously. We try to give consumers the protection they want, as well as ads that are useful and relevant.”
Brittin, who worked in publishing before joining Google, admitted that new monetization models could emerge that allow publishers to fund their content without relying on targeted advertising. For example, in a micropayment-based system, users would pay small fees for each piece of content they access, rather than expensive subscriptions that serve to exclude people from the information market. But there are also problems with this premise, he noted.
“Micropayments are something that hasn’t really taken off on the internet yet. The challenge for publishers there is that they are currently monetizing with an aggregated audience, but if: [stories are each earning a few cents per view], what is the incentive for journalists to work under the umbrella of a publication? You then get the further spray of news,” says Brittin.
When asked whether Google would consider switching from targeted to contextual advertising in the name of privacy, if a robust new monetization model emerged, Brittin declined to be pulled.
“Let’s see if we get that technology,” he told TechRadar Pro. “[In a few years’ time]I hope we look at a web that is open and affordable, that almost everyone on the planet enjoys, and that we see companies that can grow more and more through privacy-safe advertising.”