04 March 2021

Food For Thought: Cookies & Informed Consent / Terms of Use + Conditions...and all sorts of inter-related issues

Kinda fookin-weird a favorite after school snack could go so bad

How The Third Party Cookie Crumbles: Tracking And Privacy Online Get A Rethink

from the important,-but-not-as-important dept

Google made some news Wednesday by noting that once it stops using 3rd party cookies to track people, it isn't planning to replace such tracking with some other (perhaps more devious) method. This news is being met cynically (not surprisingly), with people suggesting that Google has plenty of 1st party data, and really just doesn't need 3rd party cookie data any more. Or, alternatively, some are noting (perhaps accurately) that since Google has a ton of 1st party data -- more than just about anyone else -- this could actually serve to lock in Google's position and diminish the alternatives from smaller advertising firms who rely on 3rd party cookies to bootstrap enough information to better target ads. Both claims might be accurate. Indeed, in the "no good deed goes unpunished" category, the UK has already been investigating Google's plans to drop 3rd party cookies on the grounds that it's anti-competitive. This is at the same time that others have argued that 3rd party cookies may also violate some privacy laws.

And, yes, it's possible that it can be both good for privacy and anti-competitive, which raises all sorts of interrelated issues. . . ."

__________________________

____________ ...In the end, you can't argue that this is a great solution or a terrible one. It is... just a change. A change that helps one aspect of how our current online privacy paradigm works, but which might cause other problems. It's good in that it's a further step towards the end of 3rd party cookies, which have been abused in creepy ways for too long. But it doesn't really fix overall privacy issues, and could still help lock Google into a position of dominance.

Filed Under: ads, cookies, online ads, privacy, third party cookies
Companies: google

 

 

 

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