On September 7, 2023, the Privacy Sandbox (a Google initiative) announced that it has reached “general availability” on Chrome. Google claims that this is the latest step to a more private web, while “continuing to provide businesses with the tools they need to succeed.”
Put simply, it’s a set of technologies that are meant to be Google’s replacement for third-party cookies. In the past, third-party cookies have been used to track users across the web, which has been a crucial component of targeted advertising, allowing advertisers to determine topics of interest and browsing habits. However, privacy concerns have led major browsers – like Firefox and Safari – to phase out and/or eliminate cross-app and cross-site tracking via third-party cookies.
Google has been slower to phase out third-party cookies, most likely because the company didn’t want to block this source of user data before introducing an alternative. But now that this alternative has finally been rolled out to the general public, advertisers and consumers alike need to understand what’s changing.
If you’ve used Chrome recently, you may have gotten a pop-up labeled “Enhanced ad privacy in Chrome”. The pop-up provides a brief explanation of how targeted ads will now gather information about users. The browser will note “topics of interest based on [users’] recent browsing history”. Then, websites will be able to request this information in order to show users personalized ads.
With this new system, the browser (Chrome) will act as an intermediary between the user and the website. Essentially, as a user browses the web, their activity will be categorized into different, high-level summaries, or Topics. When an advertiser wants to show an ad to users with a certain interest (Topic), the browser will reply with an anonymized list of the interests, in order to determine whether that particular ad should be shown to that particular user.
Is this a better way to target advertisements to relevant users? By locally inferring user interests via their browsing history, user data is, theoretically, more private than it would be with third-party cookies. However, many people have expressed privacy concerns over the new initiative.
Some fear that this is a way for Google to gather even more personal data than before: a user’s entire browsing history, rather than just information gathered via third-party cookies. If users want to opt-out, the two options Google gives users - “Settings” or “Got it” - don’t exactly make it clear on how to do so.
However, Google insists that their new Privacy Sandbox initiative is a much better way to track users’ interests without compromising their privacy. Advertisers can still reach potential customers, and those customers won’t have to worry about invasive identification tactics. Because this new technology uses on-device processing, user browser history isn’t even available to Google’s own servers. Plus, Google allows users who are still worried about their privacy to switch off the new ad settings.
So, what do you think? Will you be enabling this new feature?
--
Curious how Google’s changes will impact your e-commerce advertising efforts? Our team at Relevance Advisors can help your company succeed. Reach out to us today to set up a consultation.
