Google’s Facebook copycat moves leave it more exposed to privacy backlash
SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON: No one at Google envied Mark Zuckerberg last week as he was being grilled by Congress. But for years, they certainly coveted the personal data that made Facebook Inc. a formidable digital ad player. And the strategies they set to compete have now placed Google squarely in the crosshairs of a privacy backlash against the world’s largest social-media company.
The House and Senate questioned Zuckerberg for about 10 hours after revelations that data on millions of Facebook users got into the hands of Cambridge Analytica, a consulting firm that worked on US President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The hearings centred on the digital information and machinery Facebook built up to serve targeted ads. No company has a bigger business doing that—except Google. When the grilling ended, Democrats and some Republicans called for broad privacy regulation, putting Google on the hot seat next to Zuckerberg.
“Google, in every respect, collects more data. Google, in every respect, has a much bigger advertising business,” said David Chavern, president of News Media Alliance, a publisher trade group. Rather than “a Facebook privacy law”, he expects regulation to target the entire industry.
Tech giants see a higher chance of legislation if Democrats win the House of Representatives or even the Senate later this year. At that point, the companies would have to begin haggling to fend off some proposals that would be intolerable, according to a top policy official at a major internet company. One concern is that proposals will require letting users opt out of data collection completely, the person said, describing that as an untouchable foundation of internet business models.
So far, Alphabet Inc.’s Google has suffered fewer of the problems plaguing Facebook, including fake news and Russian-linked political spending. And it’s avoided public blunders like the Cambridge Analytica data leak.
But two years ago, Google altered its advertising business in a way that makes it more vulnerable to data-sharing scrutiny. The company rolled out new rules for its Doubleclick system, which targets and places ads across the web. Advertisers could start pairing their own webtracking data (from “cookies” that follow users online) with potent Google information including search queries, location history, phone numbers and credit card information. Until then, Google had kept that personal data separate.
At the time, Google said the new approach let marketers more easily track consumers across multiple devices. But two former Google ad executives said Facebook’s aggressive ad targeting moves also prompted the decision. They asked not to be named discussing their former employer. Google declined to comment.