Google will stop tracking its users across web for ads
GOOGLE is to stop tracking people across the internet for the purposes of selling ads.
The seismic move from the world’s biggest digital advertiser is, the company says, a response to growing concerns about privacy.
The tech giant plans to implement the move next year, once it discontinues support for third-party ‘cookies’, the small bits of code that allow advertisers to track users across the web.
“Once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products,” said David Temkin, Google’s director of product management, ads privacy and trust.
Last year, Google took about half of the online ad revenue available, according to marketing research agencies.
“72pc of people feel that almost all of what they do online is being tracked by advertisers, technology firms or other companies, and 81pc say that the potential risks they face because of data collection outweigh the benefits,” he added, citing a survey from Pew Research.
Instead, Google will focus on alternative technologies that can still offer some “relevant” advertising to users without tracking them across multiple websites.
It says that it is developing a “privacy sandbox” approach that takes advantage of advances in aggregation, anonymisation and on-device processing.
These “privacy-preserving technologies offer a clear path to replacing individual identifiers,” said Mr Temkin.
One way they can do this is to place users “within large crowds of people with common interests”, instead of using individual identifiers, he said.
“We realise this means other providers may offer a level of user identity for ad tracking across the web that we will not,” he said.
“We don’t believe these solutions will meet rising consumer expectations for privacy, nor will they stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions, and therefore aren’t a sustainable long term investment.”
Google has repeatedly come in for sustained criticism on privacy and tracking individuals from Apple CEO Tim Cook, as well as privacy groups.