Google has launched a set of instruments referred to as the Privacy Sandbox to dam covert tracking strategies and restrict information sharing [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS
Alphabet’s Google was hit with a complaint by Austrian advocacy group NOYB on Thursday for allegedly tracking customers of its Chrome Web browser, a difficulty already on EU antitrust regulators’ radar.
The U.S. tech large is phasing out using third-party cookies that advertisers use to trace shoppers, with a view to defend shopper privacy.
It has launched a set of instruments referred to as the Privacy Sandbox to dam covert tracking strategies and restrict information sharing with third events whereas builders and publishers can measure advertisements with out tracking particular person customers.
Chrome customers are requested whether or not they need to activate the advert privacy characteristic or to not stop being tracked.
NOYB (none of your corporation) mentioned the characteristic permits Google to trace customers throughout the browser, and that the corporate ought to first search customers’ consent as required underneath European Union privacy guidelines.
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“People thought they were agreeing to a privacy feature, but were tricked into accepting Google’s first-party ad tracking. Consent has to be informed, transparent and fair to be legal. Google has done the exact opposite,” NOYB founder Max Schrems mentioned in assertion.
The group on Thursday filed a complaint with the Austrian information safety authority.
NOYB has filed scores of complaints with EU and nationwide privacy watchdogs towards large tech corporations for alleged privacy infringements.
A Google spokesperson defended the corporate’s place, saying Google had improved methods to guard individuals’s privacy.
“This complaint fails to recognize the significant privacy protections we’ve built into the Privacy Sandbox APIs, including the Topics API, and the meaningful privacy improvement they provide over today’s technologies, including third-party cookies,” mentioned the spokesperson.
“Privacy Sandbox is designed to improve user privacy and provide the industry with privacy-preserving alternatives to cross-site tracking. We’ve been closely engaging with privacy and competition regulators globally, and will continue to do that to reach a balanced outcome that works for users and the entire ecosystem,” added the spokesperson.
