XPost: alt.comp.os.windows-10, alt.comp.os.windows-11, alt.privacy.anon-server   
   From: nobody@dizum.com   
      
   Google has an announcement today: It's not going to do something it has   
   thought about, and tinkered with, for quite some time.   
      
   Most people who just use the Chrome browser, rather than develop for it or   
   try to serve ads to it, are not going to know what "A new path for Privacy   
   Sandbox on the web" could possibly mean. The very short version is that   
   Google had a "path," first announced in January 2020, to turn off third-   
   party (i.e., tracking) cookies in the most-used browser on Earth, bringing   
   it in line with Safari, Firefox, and many other browsers. Google has   
   proposed several alternatives to the cookies that follow you from page to   
   page, constantly pitching you on that space heater you looked at three   
   days ago. Each of these alternatives has met varying amounts of resistance   
   from privacy and open web advocates, trade regulators, and the advertising   
   industry.   
      
   So rather than turn off third-party cookies by default and implement new   
   solutions inside the Privacy Sandbox, Chrome will "introduce a new   
   experience" that lets users choose their tracking preferences when they   
   update or first use Chrome. Google will also keep working on its Privacy   
   Sandbox APIs but in a way that recognizes the "impact on publishers,   
   advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising." Google also did   
   not fail to mention it was "discussing this new path with regulators."   
      
   Why today? What does it really mean? Let's journey through more than four   
   and a half years of Google's moves to replace third-party cookies, without   
   deeply endangering its standing as the world's largest advertising   
   provider.   
      
   2017–2022: FLoC or “What if machines tracked you, not cookies?”   
   Google's big moves toward a standstill likely started at Apple   
   headquarters. Its operating system updates in the fall of 2017 implemented   
   a 24-hour time limit on ad-targeting cookies in Safari, the default   
   browser on Macs and iOS devices. A "Coalition of Major Advertising Trade   
   Associations" issued a sternly worded letter opposing this change, stating   
   it would "drive a wedge between brands and their customers" and make   
   advertising "more generic and less timely and useful."   
      
   By the summer of 2019, Firefox was ready to simply block tracking cookies   
   by default. Google, which makes the vast majority of its money through   
   online advertising, made a different, broader argument against dropping   
   third-party cookies. To paraphrase: Trackers will track, and if we don't   
   give them a proper way to do it, they'll do it the dirty way by   
   fingerprinting browsers based on version numbers, fonts, screen size, and   
   other identifiers. Google said it had some machine learning that could   
   figure out when it was good to share your browsing habits. For example:   
   New technologies like Federated Learning show that it's possible for your   
   browser to avoid revealing that you are a member of a group that likes   
   Beyoncé and sweater vests until it can be sure that group contains   
   thousands of other people.   
      
   In January 2020, Google shifted its argument from "along with" to "instead   
   of" third-party cookies. Chrome Engineering Director Justin Schuh wrote,   
   "Building a more private Web: A path towards making third party cookies   
   obsolete," suggesting that broad support for Chrome's privacy sandbox   
   tools would allow for dropping third-party cookies entirely. Privacy   
   advocate Ben Adida described the move as "delivering teeth" and "a big   
   deal." Feedback from the W3C and other parties, Schuh wrote at that time,   
   "gives us confidence that solutions in this space can work."   
      
   As Google developed its replacement for third-party cookies, the path grew   
   trickier and the space more perilous. The Electronic Frontier Foundation   
   described Google's FLoC, or the "Federated Learning of Cohorts" that would   
   let Chrome machine-learn your profile for sites and ads, as "A Terrible   
   Idea." The EFF was joined by Mozilla, Apple, WordPress, DuckDuckGo, and   
   lots of browsers based on Chrome's core Chromium code in being either   
   opposed or non-committal to FLoC. Google pushed back testing FLOC until   
   late 2022 and third-party cookie removal (and thereby FLoC implementation)   
   until mid-2023.   
      
   By early 2022, FLoC didn't have a path forward. Google pivoted to a Topics   
   API, which would give users a bit more control over which topics ("Rock   
   Music," "Auto & Vehicles") would be transmitted to potential advertisers.   
   It would certainly improve over third-party cookies, which are largely   
   inscrutable in naming and offer the user only one privacy policy: block   
   them, or delete them all and lose lots of logins.   
      
   2022–2024: Sandboxes full of Topics   
      
   The self-imposed date for third-party cookie removal came up. It had been   
   two years since Mozilla and Apple blocked third-party cookies by default.   
   More than a year earlier, Apple showed iOS users which apps were   
   requesting to track them, and their response, as anticipated, was largely   
   "No." Google, by July 2022, said it wasn't ready to drop third-party   
   cookies and would support them until "the second half of 2024." The UK's   
   Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was talking to Google at that time   
   about how the Privacy Sandbox would work, and Google expected to give the   
   public access to the Topics API in Q3 2023. And Google did just that,   
   adding three different pages about the topics you've shown interest in   
   over the past month to nested Chrome settings pages.   
   With the Privacy Sandbox implemented, Google next said in early 2023 that   
   third-party cookies would be eliminated in the second half of 2024. In   
   April 2024, citing UK regulators concerned that Chrome having its own   
   exclusive user interest tracking would give Google's ad arm an unfair   
   advantage, Google pushed it again to 2025.   
      
   Rather than wait for that deadline to arrive, Google has now preempted an   
   almost inevitable change of plans and outlined a different scenario. And   
   here we are.   
      
   A prompt is not a block, but could still be big   
   Simultaneous to the post announcing a user prompt about third-party   
   tracking, Google Ads issued a whitepaper yesterday with a study suggesting   
   that display advertising placed with the Privacy Sandbox saw 97 percent as   
   much engagement as with traditional third-party cookies enabled and 97   
   percent as many "Conversions per dollar" (CPD) in display ads. Follow-up   
   ads to those same Sandbox users, however, garnered only 55 percent   
   effectiveness in capturing the same attention. And these results come from   
   only 1 percent of Chrome users with the right APIs enabled. Media execs   
   told Digiday that, especially for smaller firms, testing and   
   experimentation is too costly and resource-intensive at the moment,   
   especially as timelines keep getting pushed.   
      
   The Sandbox is still being formed, in other words, and advertisers might   
   want to keep an eye on it for when the next big change happens. But the   
   big movement toward Topics is nowhere near a stampede yet.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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