With the July 22 announcement by Antonego Chavez, deputy director of the Privacy Sandbox project, the media world was abuzz with news that support for third-party cookies will be retained in the Chrome browser. Is that all there is to it? Let's take a look at the topic. Competition vs. Privacy Google's statement comes as somewhat of a surprise. The corporation actually began talking about building a "Privacy Sandbox" as early as 2019. It began this work, Google said - in response to growing concerns and reputational risks associated with privacy threats based on tracking techniques. The ICO, the UK's data protection watchdog, has backed work on Privacy Sandbox. Such announcements by Google were in line with the actions of other browser makers, which have gradually restricted or blocked third-party cookies.
Google's plan to eliminate third-party cookies, however, faced strong opposition from advertisers and publishers from the outset. The CMA, the U.K.'s competition watchdog, listened to the industry's voice and also had serious arguments. Advertisers and publishers argued that Privacy Sandbox further strengthens Google's dominance in the adtech space, as the company would become the owner and operator of the reconfigured targeting infrastructure. This would clearly mean that advertisers and publishers would become even more dependent on the tech giant.
Suggestion: let users decide Google's proposal for a "third way," which relies on consumer choice at the browser level, may offer the two British regulators a fairly simple way out of the impasse: Let users decide!
Someone might say - after all, users already decide on the use of cookies in cookie pop-ups. Such a sentence is true in a situation where the choice presented to the user is transparent and easy to use. Often, however, he or she does not have a clear choice in the first layer of information and, in addition, has to make an effort not to consent or to change his or her decision. In this kind of situation, it is difficult to claim that users' decisions are fully transparent and valid.
IAB Europe's response In its post, IAB Europe highlights two key points that the IAB says should be addressed in any alternative approach implemented in Chrome.
The IAB notes that the means of consent are already subject to industry standards, developed within the framework of existing regulations. From this perspective, it is unclear how a user's decision made before he or she enters a specific website and before he or she receives the legally required information should be treated. Is such a decision informed and specific? It should be noted, however, that for years users have been able to manage third-party cookies through browser settings or by using blocking plug-ins. And the proposal may fit quite well into this existing practice.
The second point that IAB Europe raises is the analogy between this solution and Apple's ATT case, which entailed harm to publishers and which is currently under antitrust scrutiny in several EU jurisdictions.
At the end of its statement, IAB Europe calls on Google to ensure that development is carried out in close cooperation with industry standard-setting organizations.
What's next? Google will offer users a choice. There is no detailed information on this subject. However, we can properly imagine that Google may give users a choice of 3 options:
turn off third-party cookies, content and ads can be random and not interest me; turn off third-party cookies, but tailor content and ads to my interests (in cooperation with Google - use Privacy Sandbox tool); turn on third-party cookies, tailor content and ads to my interests. We will soon see what details are being discussed at Google. The UK's Competition Authority (CMA), has announced that it will work closely with the ICO to carefully consider Google's new approach to Privacy Sandbox, and is open to gathering feedback from interested parties until August 12 this year.
Uncertainty about specific solutions is therefore really high.
Gemius solutions for publishers and advertisers legally compliant Whatever solution is worked out to the above issue, we believe that the depreciation of third-party cookies will continue. Therefore, we reacted to the announcements and changes and proposed to make appropriate changes in our surveys. In cooperation with stakeholders , we have developed methodological and organizational solutions in the gemiusAudience study (in Poland Mediapanel) that follow the changes beyond our control, which is to limit the use of cookies. The efforts we are making give us confidence that, despite all sorts of changes, we will still be able to provide data for independent media research. This means that - as always - we will offer our clients lawful research solutions that are safe for the surveyed entities and the recipients of the media survey results.
