Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome

Ars Technica

Chrome now directly tracks users, generates a "topic" list it shares with advertisers.

(Text continues underneath the illustration.)

Google's not looking as good as it used to.

Don't let Chrome's big redesign distract you from the fact that Chrome's invasive new ad platform, ridiculously branded the "Privacy Sandbox," is also getting a widespread rollout in Chrome today. If you haven't been following this, this feature will track the web pages you visit and generate a list of advertising topics that it will share with web pages whenever they ask, and it's built directly into the Chrome browser. (...)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also argued this when it called Google's FLoC a "terrible idea", saying "[Google's] framing is based on a false premise that we have to choose between 'old tracking' and 'new tracking.' It’s not either-or. Instead of re-inventing the tracking wheel, we should imagine a better world without the myriad problems of targeted ads." (...)

Did any user in the world want a user-tracking and ad platform baked directly into their browser? Probably not, but this is Google, and they control Chrome, and this probably still won't make people switch to Firefox.

Complete article

Tags: #internet #ads #google #alphabet #tracking #cookies #browser #chrome #privacy #floc #firefox