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Google has a tracking problem. Nowhere is this more acute than with Chrome, the world’s most popular browser and front-end to the company’s marketing machine. Last year, Google reversed its decision to kill off the tracking cookies that follow Chrome’s 3 billion users around the web. That was bad — but you’re about to get something worse.
While there’s no agreed end-date to tracking cookies, there’s a likely next step. Google has teased a one-click solution for users to stop being tracked. Think of this as its equivalent to App Tracking Transparency deployed by Apple, which gave Meta and others a serious bloody nose. But Google doesn’t need tracking cookies itself. It almost certainly knows who you are because you hold one of its accounts.
And so as cookies give way to a “please don’t track me” global prompt, Google will have to convince the marketing industry that it hasn’t gained a huge advantage at their expense. But it’s not all bad news for the wider ecosystem. If tracking cookies are controversial, they’re nothing compared to digital fingerprinting, and the industry is about to get back this favored tracking tool that’s been banned for years.
Digital fingerprinting combines multiple user data signals collected on device, building a profile that transcends websites to identify you and everything you like and are likely to buy. Even Google has slammed this tracking in the past, warning it “subverts user choice and is wrong.” Somewhat surprisingly then, it’s about to return. And this time it will move beyond the web to the smart devices you own. Tracking you everywhere.
Google has two arguments for bringing back digital fingerprinting and allowing it to be used across devices rather than just web browsers. First is the “broader range of surfaces on which ads are served.” This means TVs, gaming consoles, and other smart devices in and out of your home. Second it says, are privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) that unlock “new ways for brands to manage and activate their data safely and securely,” while “giving people the privacy protections they expect.”
Zak Doffman
SOURCE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...-starts-tracking-all-your-devices-in-10-days/
While there’s no agreed end-date to tracking cookies, there’s a likely next step. Google has teased a one-click solution for users to stop being tracked. Think of this as its equivalent to App Tracking Transparency deployed by Apple, which gave Meta and others a serious bloody nose. But Google doesn’t need tracking cookies itself. It almost certainly knows who you are because you hold one of its accounts.
And so as cookies give way to a “please don’t track me” global prompt, Google will have to convince the marketing industry that it hasn’t gained a huge advantage at their expense. But it’s not all bad news for the wider ecosystem. If tracking cookies are controversial, they’re nothing compared to digital fingerprinting, and the industry is about to get back this favored tracking tool that’s been banned for years.
Digital fingerprinting combines multiple user data signals collected on device, building a profile that transcends websites to identify you and everything you like and are likely to buy. Even Google has slammed this tracking in the past, warning it “subverts user choice and is wrong.” Somewhat surprisingly then, it’s about to return. And this time it will move beyond the web to the smart devices you own. Tracking you everywhere.
Google has two arguments for bringing back digital fingerprinting and allowing it to be used across devices rather than just web browsers. First is the “broader range of surfaces on which ads are served.” This means TVs, gaming consoles, and other smart devices in and out of your home. Second it says, are privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) that unlock “new ways for brands to manage and activate their data safely and securely,” while “giving people the privacy protections they expect.”
Zak Doffman
SOURCE: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...-starts-tracking-all-your-devices-in-10-days/
