Wherever you go on the Internet, the same question pops up again and again: “Do you want to allow the use of cookies?” The data sets that browsers store on their users’ computers and smartphones are an essential pillar for personalized online advertising. But the pressure on browser providers is growing. Given government regulations and users’ growing awareness of their data security, many see a so-called “cookie-free future” on the horizon.
After Apple and Firefox developer Mozilla took action against third-party cookies, Google also plans to remove them from its Chrome web browser this year. At the beginning of this year, the company took a first step. Since January 4, access to third-party cookies has been restricted by default for about one percent of Chrome browser users, as the company announced. The participants in the test phase were selected at random.
These cookies will then be phased out completely in the second half of the year – “provided that the UK Competition Authority’s remaining concerns have been resolved by then,” Google announced online. The cookie banners that appear when you open a page will remain in place for the time being.
Tracking program
Cookies are small files that a browser stores on a user’s online device. Because these files often contain unique identifiers, websites can use them to recognize their visitors. For example, a browser can remember a login or the contents of a virtual shopping cart. Above all, cookies enable personalized advertising. What is especially controversial are the so-called third-party cookies, which are not placed by the visited website itself, but via embedded content from other sites. They allow advertising service providers to track users across multiple pages and create profiles for advertising purposes.
Third-party cookies allow users to be “tracked in great detail across different websites by third-party providers,” said Lidia Schneck, partner manager at Google. With the so-called privacy sandbox, this should be limited in the future so that advertising providers only receive certain information about the interests of users to a very limited extent, “to prevent a user from being identified or recognized.” have been developed for this together with the industry. From the end of this year, external providers will no longer be able to track the individual surfing behavior of users across different websites.
Instead, for example, the websites a user visits are marked with higher-level advertising topics, so-called topics – i.e. with categories such as ‘sports’, ‘travel’ or ‘pets’. The browser records a user’s most frequent topics, stores them locally on the device, and if necessary, shares up to three ad topics from the past three weeks with the ad providers. The goal is to display relevant advertisements to the user without the advertiser knowing which specific websites have been visited. In Chrome settings, users can see which ad themes are assigned to them and make changes if necessary.
The advertising industry wants to save cookies
The advertising industry is criticizing the planned phase-out of third-party cookies. This will not strengthen data protection, but rather Google’s dominance in the advertising media market, says Bernd Nauen, director of the Central Association of the German Advertising Industry (ZAW). “In the long run, consumers would be at a disadvantage. What it doesn’t mean: less tracking by Google, less data on Google,” says Nauen. Because Google’s wealth of data is mainly based on first-party data, which Google collects for itself through the user login, its own first-party cookies, or when a search query is performed.
Outside of Google’s services and some other “megaplatforms,” if cookies were deprecated, users would only be able to see very limited ads based on their presumed interests, Nauen says. “Going back to spam, pop-ups and excessive banner advertising on topics that put me off rather than interest me certainly cannot be the solution.”
Competition watchdog required
According to the ZAW, individual market-dominant platforms should not limit the scope of the advertising industry. Such a decision must rest with the legislature, which has also passed laws to prevent regulations that such platforms create to the detriment of competition. The competition authorities are therefore being called upon more than ever.
The German Federal Association of Consumer Organizations (vzbv) is generally critical of “tracking and profiling for advertising purposes,” says speaker Florian Glatzner. The problem is not limited to one technology, such as third-party cookies. Advertising is sometimes specifically tailored to the weaknesses of consumers. “This endangers the protection of personal data and privacy, makes manipulation possible and encourages discrimination.”
Moreover, consumers are often unable to understand the scope and consequences of their consent. “The online advertising market and the technologies behind it (as well as the privacy sandbox) are too complex, too opaque and not easy to monitor,” Glatzner explains. According to the association, tracking and profiling for advertising purposes should therefore be completely prohibited.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
