It has become increasingly common for browsers to use third-party cookies as part of their browsing process, which makes it possible for advertisers and bad actors to spy on large chunks of your browsing history to provide more relevant ads. There is no doubt that third-party cookies contribute to the functioning of websites and the experience of Internet users, but most experts agree that we need alternatives that are easier to control, regulate, and understand.
Google announced in a blog post that it will enable the Privacy Sandbox APIs over the next few days to protect user privacy. There would be an initial rollout of these APIs for a small percentage of users with Chrome 115 installed. When the APIs become available, they would ramp up gradually over time.
To get rid of browser cookies, Google developed a Privacy Sandbox in 2019 to rid itself of the problem. This is counter to Google's operation. The privacy feature on the site is not intended to completely stop advertisers from targeting audiences with their ads. Instead, it makes it harder for advertisers to access users' personal information. Google announced the Privacy Sandbox program in May 2023. It stated that the process would begin by July 2023 and be available to everyone. Finally, the day has come when that dream will become a reality.
The Chrome Developers blog for Chrome 115 has more details about the upcoming "relevance and measurement APIs" introduced in Chrome 115. There are several APIs, including Topics APIs that categorize a user’s interests based on how they utilize the Internet. These APIs do not share this information with advertisers directly. There are also attribution reporting APIs, which can determine if ad clicks or views result in conversions. Besides the Protected Audience API (previously FLEDGE), which allows relevant advertising to be displayed to users based on their previous interactions with advertisers.
It is important to point out that these updates come shortly after the U.K.'s top privacy watchdog, Competition Markets & Authority, which is responsible for overseeing the development of Sandbox, released a set of guidelines for testing Sandbox just a few weeks ago. It has been proposed that Google will have to submit itself to more oversight by the CMA by 2021. This is to address concerns that removing third-party cookies may pose a new competitive challenge for companies that use personalized ads. As per the guidelines, reporting test results is particularly critical for ad-tech companies as it helps the CMA assess whether the Privacy Sandbox has addressed our competition concerns, which will help determine whether the Privacy Sandbox is effective.
The matter of privacy and competition remains one of the biggest concerns facing Google and other digital advertising giants in Europe and the U.S. about the way they conduct their online advertising practices. A new lawsuit has been filed by the European Commission against Google, asserting that its ad-tech business violates the antitrust laws of the EU and suggesting potential steps to break up its massive ad-tech operation. It was noted by Norwegian legislators, as well as French regulatory agencies, that Meta was placed under state control due to its behavioral advertising. In contrast, Criteo was fined for using personal data for advertising. Various courts, lawmakers, and regulatory agencies in various countries have pressured other companies to use data for advertising purposes.
A privacy sandbox, in essence, is a document that claims third-party cookies are a privacy disaster that needs to be fixed with an open, industry-wide standard that aims to accomplish this goal. A user tracking tool integrates into your browser so that it runs securely locally, which then means that data that is relevant and anonymous is only sent to websites and advertisers when it is relevant and relevant, such as what type of products or topics people may be interested in when visiting their website. By doing this, advertisers and publishers will not have to track users personally so they will no longer have to track their audience.
The EFF, one of the privacy watchdogs that monitors privacy issues, has criticized the Privacy Sandbox for some of its original ideas. These include FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), which was among its ideas. In response to feedback, Google pivoted and created a different approach, such as Protected Audience. This has not received the same criticism as the now-launched Protected Audience, as it does not follow the same approach. The Privacy Sandbox continues to be a subject of controversy among competitors such as Brave, partly because of concerns surrounding antitrust laws.
In the beginning, the APIs will be turned on for a limited number of Chrome dev browser instances that are part of Google Chrome development. With the rollout progressing, Google will gradually increase the number of devices to monitor potential problems as the rollout progresses. The following are some of the APIs that were enabled for Chrome developers during this rollout - a few groups of developers will only encounter a subset of the newly available APIs activated so it is easier to detect and isolate issues associated with specific APIs during this rollout.
There is a possibility that this process will begin next week, starting on the 24th of July, according to Google. The APIs will be released for about 35 percent of the browsers during the week so that the developers can test the APIs. According to the company, they plan to increase this to 60 percent by the end of August. During August, a Chrome 116 general availability date is expected to be announced. However, it is unclear when APIs will work for 99 percent of Chrome 115 browsers.
At this stage of the testing program, Google says most of the small groups tested with limited access should have all the relevance and measurement APIs enabled. 'Only small, isolated groups are going to be maintained by the company, without each API being enabled for every small group.
A couple of issues with onboarding and regulatory investigations have caused Google to delay the project, although it was originally projected to phase out third-party cookies in late 2023. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which previously voiced concerns that the search giant's own advertising business would unfairly gain from the updated approach, published guidelines in June for third parties to follow when testing Google's Privacy Sandbox tools.
It is well known that by passing the CMA's regulatory hurdles back in 2022, Google's plans for refusing or removing third-party cookies will have been approved (provided that Google sticks to the commitments it made to get approval), and the company said it "will continue to work closely with the CMA" before taking any further action to do so.