Google to end using ads for tracking user data

Google notified that after third-party cookies are phased out of its platforms, the Search Engine will not establish substitute identifiers to track individuals while they browse the web. After phasing out existing ad-tracking technology from Chrome browsers, Google says it will not build new techniques to track individual users across the internet. Last year, Google Chrome stated that it would stop supporting third-party cookies. However, the plan to ban third party cookies has been held back till 2023. 

The search engine also adds that neither will it employ identifiers to track people or products, nor in order to provide a privacy-first web experience for billions of its users. In a bid to create a privacy-first web experience for billions of its users, Google has explicitly announced that once third-party cookies are phased out from its platforms, it will not build alternate identifiers.

“We continue to receive questions about whether Google would follow other ad tech companies in replacing third-party cookies with alternative user-level identifiers,” said David Temkin, Google’s Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Trust.

Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox have disabled third-party cookies, and Google plans to do the same with Chrome. Advertisers can monitor you while you go between different websites thanks to cookies. In a transition, advertisers don’t need to track individual consumers around the web to get the benefits of digital advertising, according to Google. “Our online solutions will be underpinned by privacy-preserving APIs,” Temkin said, “which will prohibit individual monitoring while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers.” 

Nearly 72% of individuals believe that advertising, technology corporations, and other companies follow practically everything they do online, and 81% believe that the risks they face as a result of data collecting are significant. 

Google in a blog post announced that after it starts phasing out existing technology from its Chrome browser next year, it will not build or employ substitute tools to track web surfing traffic, in a move that will transform how online advertising works. To address expanding data demands, Google announced early this year that it will eliminate third-party cookies, which have enabled web adverts for decades.

For years, privacy advocates have chastised tech corporations like Google for using cookies to collect web surfing history from websites they don’t own, allowing them to build profiles on users’ interests in order to provide targeted ads. Google has since stated that it would not use any other technology to replace the cookie or incorporate features into Google Chrome to gain access to that data.