Google Charges Ahead with Privacy Sandbox Initiative as the Fight for Online Privacy Continues
Over the last few years, online privacy has become a growing concern for many users and has received much media attention. As user-tracking technology continues to advance at a pace that congressional lawmakers are unable to keep up with, Big Tech has faced pressure by privacy advocates and the EU to implement their own approaches to protect user privacy.
Well, it’s safe to say that Big Tech has been making moves.[1] By 2023, Google plans to block third-party cookies and limit covert tracking in its Chrome browser, aligning with Safari and Firefox, who already have blocking systems in place.[2] Known as the Privacy Sandbox, Google claims that its new “ad targeting tech stack” provides alternatives that enhance user privacy, yet are “still effective for generating ad revenue.”[3] The move by Google is significant for the ad industry, as “Chrome is the most-used desktop browser.”[4]
The Sandbox includes multiple initiatives, such as Google Topics and FLEDGE.[5] Topics recently replaced Google’s initial cookies alternative, Federated Learning of Cohorts (“FLoC”), which would have enabled “interest-based advertising on the web without letting advertisers know your individual identity.”[6] FLoC was subject to criticism by browser vendors and privacy advocates due to potential privacy risks and quickly abandoned thereafter.[7] Instead, Topics “splits the web into different topics and divides people into these groupings depending on their interests.”[8] FLEDGE aims to enable remarketing by advertising based on browsing history.[9]
Last year, Google delayed its plan to implement the Sandbox until 2023, which would be phased in over a three-month period.[10] The postponement was announced as Google faced scrutiny by regulators, in particular the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”).[11] The CMA’s disapproval forced the tech giant to collaborate with the UK competition regulator to develop “privacy-oriented alternative[s] to tracking cookies” while still protecting competition.[12] As the leading search engine, antitrust fears have loomed that the Sandbox will only concentrate more power into the hands of Google.[13] In fact, EU authorities opened an investigation last year to assess whether Google has violated antitrust law by “favouring its own online display advertising technology services in the so called ‘ad tech’ supply chain, to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers.”[14] And, EU regulators are concerned about whether the plan satisfies GDPR requirements.[15] In February 2022, however, Google “overcame a key regulatory hurdle,” as CMA announced that it had “accepted Google’s commitments about how it’ll develop the new standards so they don’t harm competition or unfairly benefit the search giant’s own advertising business.”[16] The approval does not validate any particular technology, however; it simply validates Google’s new approach.[17] As Google’s commitment is now legally binding in the UK, the CMA will continue to monitor the Sandbox’s development, and Google plans to apply them globally.[18] The search engine’s obligations include transparent development protocols, publishing of test results, refraining from removing cookies until it develops satisfactory alternatives that don’t heighten antitrust problems, and abstain from sharing data within its business.[19] As a result of CMA approval, Google has entered the next phase of development and began beta testing of the Sandbox initiatives.[20]
While Google’s proposals seem promising, they have not been free from criticism. Some have argued that Topics is simply a slightly improved version of FLoC, as it only reworked “‘minor privacy issues in FLoC[] while leaving its core intact.’”[21] Additionally, critics still contend that the initiatives reassert Google’s dominance in the advertising market and attack a key source of revenue—marketing via targeted advertising—for online businesses.[22] “Whether Google’s approach with Sandbox will truly be privacy preserving is one rather salient and yet to be answered question hanging over the proposal.”[23] With its revenue streams deeply intertwined with tracking, it remains to be seen whether Google can successfully uphold its initiative.[24]
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