Privacy regulations are curbing the organizations’ power to use or collect various forms of data. One of the verticals of an organization that might be hit will be advertising. Advertisers collect small bits of user data to promote different products.
Google is one of the biggest advertising companies collecting user information through cookies; the company earns a major part of its revenue from ad posting. Google is all set to roll-out a new policy known as “Privacy Sandbox,” the new policy will limit the data exposure of users as the third-party organizations will now need to go through Google to get the information about the internet users.
Many critics, however, are skeptical about the move that is to safeguard users’ privacy, but it might be a move by the company to diminish the competition. Only Google will be having undaunted access to the users’ data. Recently, another major company changed its cookie policy when Apple took steps to limit the third-party to cookies and increased privacy in 2017, and then it was changed in May 2019. Apple Safari web browser offers various features such as anti-tracking, intelligent tracking prevention, and shortens the life span of cookies.
Cookies are a digital tool that track an individual’s internet activity, a small piece of data stored by web browsers like Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari, while users surf the internet. With various websites visited by the users; some part of the information is stored. The information is stored as the cookies, and web publishers use them to determine what advertising to target the particular user.
Shares of Google were down following the news about the new rules, which will be limiting its ability to target individuals. In August 2019, Google said that the new policy will be limiting third-party access to cookies. The Director of Chrome Engineering Justin Schuh, said in a statement that the company and advertisers need to work together to build a trustworthy and sustainable web together. One of the reasons experts are citing for the change in cookie policy is that the large scale data breaches have raised concerns about how much data is out there and to whom it is available.