Google Claims it will Stop Tracking individual Users for Ads

[upnorth]

Content source

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/03/google-claims-it-will-stop-tracking-individual-users-for-ads/

As Google's plan to kill third-party tracking cookies ramps up, the company is answering questions about what will replace it. Many people have wondered: if Google kills cookies, won't the company just cook up some other method for individually tracking users?

Today, Google answered that concern in a post on its "Ads & Commerce" blog, pledging it won't come up with "any technology used for tracking individual people." The company wrote: We continue to get questions about whether Google will join others in the ad tech industry who plan to replace third-party cookies with alternative user-level identifiers. Today, we’re making explicit that 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.

You might look at that statement and think that Google is sacrificing something or turning over a new leaf when it comes to privacy, but really, Google doesn't need to track individuals for advertisements. Google's cookie-tracking replacement technology, the Chrome "Privacy Sandbox," uses group tracking, which is more in line with how advertisers think anyway.

Google claims it will stop tracking individual users for ads

Google says anonymized, group-based interest tracking will be good enough.

arstechnica.com

 

[mlnevese]

 

[ForgottenSeer 85179]

Don't know why you guys laugh about.
Google clearly write how it works and it sounds nice and logically so far.

Also they don't block whole tracking. Only tracking as person

 

[mlnevese]

I'll believe in Google's sincere wishes to not track and protect the individual the day it happens.

 

[Arequire]

Great.
Now can they dump their Privacy Sandbox proposal that'll gift third-parties a complimentary stream of sensitive information that they're free to combine with their own self-built profiles of individual users and allow for even greater individual tracking.

 

[Local Host]

I'll believe in Google's sincere wishes to not track and protect the individual the day it happens.

Probably the day humans go extinct and we can finally take over, until then, let them kill each other they good at that.

 

[mkoundo]

they are stopping trackage because they already have you owned

 

[blackice]

I don’t think they ever cared that much about individuals. Ads aren’t super beneficial at a single user level. They may have actually realized the revenue for advertising on an individual level wasn’t worth the expense of tracking. It’s not necessarily turning over a new leaf, they just realized the cost benefit was that it’s more cost effective as aggregate data.

 

[TairikuOkami]

I hope that it is gonna be optional (opt-in), I love personalized google ADs, like offers for security software instead of generic recipes for chicken soap (I am a vegetarian).

 

[blackice]

I hope that it is gonna be optional (opt-in), I love personalized google ADs, like offers for security software instead of generic recipes for chicken soap (I am a vegetarian).

The worst google has done (that we know of) with tracking is useful advertising. Which some people find horrific. We’ve yet to see anyone but the NSA use personal traffic for more sinister applications.

 

[Arequire]

The worst google has done (that we know of) with tracking is useful advertising. Which some people find horrific. We’ve yet to see anyone but the NSA use personal traffic for more sinister applications.

I've actually been thinking about this a lot since you wrote it and I've been having an internal debate on my attitude towards the privacy implications of online advertising/tracking in general since then. I mean, beyond feeling a little creeped out at seeing ads for products I've previously looked at/purchased, are there any actual privacy violations that will directly affect me if Facebook were to know that I recently purchased a replacement paddle for my breadmaker? Or that I watch anime? Or that I need to renew my breakdown insurance?

I don't think I've thought about it this way before and it's interesting having one part of my brain go "You know, he's right. What else is there besides more relevant ads?" and another part going "Yeah, but all this information could end up in the hands of an entity with genuinely sinister intentions. Why take the risk?"

 

[blackice]

I've actually been thinking about this a lot since you wrote it and I've been having an internal debate on my attitude towards the privacy implications of online advertising/tracking in general since then. I mean, beyond feeling a little creeped out at seeing ads for products I've previously looked at/purchased, are there any actual privacy violations that will directly affect me if Facebook were to know that I recently purchased a replacement paddle for my breadmaker? Or that I watch anime? Or that I need to renew my breakdown insurance?

I don't think I've thought about it this way before and it's interesting having one part of my brain go "You know, he's right. What else is there besides more relevant ads?" and another part going "Yeah, but all this information could end up in the hands of an entity with genuinely sinister intentions. Why take the risk?"

If it makes you feel better I have the same internal debate. I mostly use Chrome for google services and site and then another browser for everything else. But I don’t know if it’s worth it.

 

[Eggnog]

Google's going to stop tracking users for ads ... AVG/Avast are suddenly the knights in shining armor riding to the rescue. It's crazy times, people. Crazy times. Will this COVID madness never end?

 

[TairikuOkami]

I don't think I've thought about it this way before and it's interesting having one part of my brain go "You know, he's right. What else is there besides more relevant ads?"

Sometimes privacy is overrated. Search bubbles for example, he portraits it as something bad, but the video itself explains, that searches show, what the users want, so it helps.

"Yeah, but all this information could end up in the hands of an entity with genuinely sinister intentions. Why take the risk?"

That depends, what info. I have my FB public and I will tell anyone anything about myself, I do not consider it a sensitive info, since it can not be used to steal my identity.
I never publish my real birthday though, but aside from that, I do not really care. NSA and others entities already have all info about me they want, they do not need my help.

 

[mlnevese]

There is a paranoid exaggeration about most tracking, directed ads MAY BE USEFUL. The same goes for telemetry. Most of it is useful and may help developers decide which features need improvement or can be dropped, it can help identify bugs, etc. The problem is discovering where it stops being useful and becomes an invasion of your private life.

In my machines I disable most tracking, allowing the ones that may be useful to me such as directed search results. I also keep most telemetry on.

 

[blackice]

Sometimes privacy is overrated. Search bubbles for example, he portraits it as something bad, but the video itself explains, that searches show, what the users want, so it helps.


That depends, what info. I have my FB public and I will tell anyone anything about myself, I do not consider it a sensitive info, since it can not be used to steal my identity.
I never publish my real birthday though, but aside from that, I do not really care. NSA and others entities already have all info about me they want, they do not need my help.

I think most privacy wonks may secretly just be worried about their ‘adult’ browsing being discovered.

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

I think most privacy wonks may secretly just be worried about their ‘adult’ browsing being discovered.

Well they may have a reason to be worried, depends on what their "adult" browsing preferences are.
I don't disable any sorts of tracking personally and I'm not afraid of being tracked. I'm just an average Joe who loves to shop, watch YT and play with malware. From time to time I like to upload my gym pics in search for attention or share my trips. Nothing too interesting to see here. My "adult" browsing also won't shock anybody, it may even be classified as boring.

 

[russ0408]

I think the reason the bad guys are changing their ways is because Windows 10 is becoming a force to reckon with. For example Chromium Edge is slowly creeping it's way up the ladder and Windows Defender is now getting perfect scores, and is now becoming the rave. They know if they don't change their ...ss could be grass.