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Google plans to disable the ability to track Internet users using cookies in the Chrome browser as early as next year. It’s the most popular browser (used by more than 60. percent of users) in the world, so making such a big change will reverberate around the web. However, there will be alternatives to cookies, i.e. new browser features. We are talking about the Privacy Sandbox project.
There are billions of data on the Internet that directly affect users. The change related to cookies will affect many entities: business owners, brands advertising products and services online, advertising networks and news organizations that target ads to every corner of the web. The issue of Internet user privacy is becoming increasingly important.
How do cookies work?
If you surf the Web using the Chrome browser, your behavior is tracked by cookies. These are small pieces of code that record the user’s browsing history and, according to it, later display ads for products or services to the user. Third-party cookies send all the data they collect to a different domain than the one the user is currently using. Proprietary cookies send the data back to the owners of the domain you are visiting at the time.
If later on your monitor or mobile screen you see an ad for shoes viewed 2 weeks ago, third-party cookies are responsible. Based on this, user profiles are created with interests, products, online behavior, and these can be passed on to data brokers.
What is Privacy Sandbox?
Privacy Sandbox is Google’s alternative project to restrict the use of cookies for third-party companies and take care of Internet users’ privacy. It’s also a project that thinks online advertising should be improved without destroying the advertising industry. In addition to removing third-party cookies, Privacy Sandbox also addresses problems such as ad fraud and the introduction of new ways for companies to measure ad performance.
Restricting cookie tracking has already been implemented by several other browsers. Apple’s Safari, the second largest browser after Chrome, did so in 2017. Mozilla Firefox blocked third-party cookies in 2019.
Privacy Sandbox: what does it rely on?
Google’s plan is to target ads to users (taking into account their general interests) using a system of artificial intelligence called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). It involves the use of a machine learning system that takes a user’s Internet history and places them in a specific group based on interests. The project’s creators envision a number of such groups, but the exact guidelines on how to create them are still being worked out. Advertisers will then be able to place ads in front of people based on the preferences of the group they belong to. When the system detects that a user likes sneakers, for example, he or she will be categorized into a group along with other sneaker fans. The change is somewhat reminiscent of Netflix’s mechanism, which calculates what a given user might want to watch.
Privacy Sandbox in testing phase
Currently, 5 different key areas of the project are in the testing phase:
- fraud detection,
- content customization,
- Operation of company-owned and related domains,
- measurement of ads,
- The default way to request browser information.
Early tests of the FloC algorithm indicate that new advertising solutions that protect users’ privacy may be as effective as cookie-based approaches. This is good news for users, publishers and advertisers. Importantly, users will be able to decide whether or not content is tailored to them. Critics of Privacy Sandbox say the removal of cookies will exclude smaller advertising companies and could hinder websites that make money from ads.
ITH Security
In addition to the Internet, we also offer ITH Security, within which we offer security consulting, network protection (firewall, UTM in the cloud) or security audits.