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Chrome Privacy

Google's Cookie Killing Tech Is Now On Almost Every Chrome Browser (gizmodo.com) 68

Posted by BeauHD from the significant-milestones dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Google's Privacy Sandbox, a controversial set of tools and settings meant to replace third-party cookies, is now on almost every single Chrome browser, according to a company blog post published Thursday. Google says Privacy Sandbox is now available to around 97% of Chrome users, and that number will reach 100% in the next few months. The news comes on the heels of the browser's 15th anniversary, which Google is celebrating by redesigning Chrome to make it look and feel more closely aligned with the design paradigm of Android and the rest of the Google suite. The final step in this process comes in 2024, when Google will disable third-party cookies in Chrome for good, marking the end of their decades-long reign of privacy-violating terror.

Back in 2019, Google said the cookie era was coming to a close. In place of third-party cookies, Privacy Sandbox will implement a long list of new tools for the ad industry. Google, after all, makes all of its money by spying on you and turning the insights into ads, so it's not about to put itself out of business. In fairness, this new system is really more private, though it's private on Google's terms. The biggest change is "Ad Topics," a.k.a. the Topics API if you're a huge nerd who's been following this stuff for years. With Topics, Chrome will keep track of all the websites you're looking at and sort you into a variety of categories. This tracking happens in your browser and the data stays on your device. Neither Google nor anyone else gets to see your browsing history or learn anything about you as an individual throughout this process. Websites and advertising companies will know there's a person interested in a certain Topic, but they won't be able to tell who you are specifically.

There's also an extremely complicated technique websites can use to tag you with subjects they want you to see ads about, called "Site Suggested Ads." Google is also rolling out a tool called "Ad Measurement," which helps companies keep track of how well their ads are working through metrics such as the time of day you saw an ad and whether you clicked on it. Google gives users some control over how these tools are implemented. With the rollout of Privacy Sandbox comes new settings listed as "Ad privacy controls," which you can adjust in Chrome's preferences. Further reading: Chrome is About To Look a Bit Different
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Google's Cookie Killing Tech Is Now On Almost Every Chrome Browser More

Google's Cookie Killing Tech Is Now On Almost Every Chrome Browser

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  • Armchair privacy expert incoming (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PhrostyMcByte ( 589271 ) <phrosty@gmail.com> on Thursday September 07, 2023 @07:47PM (#63830938) Homepage

    Websites and advertising companies will know there's a person interested in a certain Topic, but they won't be able to tell who you are specifically.

    Really, because this feels like a new vector to fingerprint users with. Google doesn't have a great track record with any of the stuff that has overlapped with their ability to sell ads, so I don't think anyone should give them trust here. Would love to know more.

    • Re: Armchair privacy expert incoming (Score:5, Informative)

      by samwichse ( 1056268 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @10:22PM (#63831198)

      Also: the settings are opt-out, not opt-in. When you open your updated browser, you get a popup telling you how your privacy is now fantastic, and this can be disabled. No link to just disable it though. Just a "Settings" link where you have to go into settings and disable them all individually.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        The screen that tells you about it has two options: "No thanks" and "Yes please".

        • "No thanks" takes you to the settings page, where you have to disable them all individually, or it did when I clicked it, maybe they fixed this after some feedback...

    • You aint lying. Simple challenge. Fire up up a local httpserver and point your chrome browser to your own computer. Now run lsof -i. What? A persistent connection to google owned domains like 1e100.net? Now do it with Firefox, Vivaldi, and Brave, to see the exact same thing. Watch the encrypted dataflows. See how everything you do with every browser is flowing to Google, Azure or Amazon. Ads are irrelevant, because the privacy violations are more deeply embedded.

    • Well, there is the part where the PII is all handled locally in the browser and the only thing that gets uploaded is an aggregation category. That seems like a good thing.

      • But the combination of category and the other headers that are sent are more likely to be unique. So if you already have cookie blocking extensions installed, it will decrease your privacy. They did not launch a new 'privacy feature'. They launched a new advertising feature.
        I did get a setting to immediately disable it on the popup at the beginning. Might be different in the EU than the US?

    • But look what you're getting in return:

      which Google is celebrating by redesigning Chrome to make it look and feel more closely aligned with

      Goody goody gumdrops, a UI refresh. Haven't had one of those for weeks if not months, and just as I was getting used to everything that was broken from the last UI refresh.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Topics is of little use for fingerprinting. One of the reasons FLoC, its predecessor, failed was because people (including me) got involved in the development process and pointed out how it could be used for fingerprinting.

      Topics resists fingerprinting by randomising the list of topics presented to the website, and periodically rotating the list. It's also possible to send a null list, if the browser has not had time to gather topics of interest, or if the user disables the Topics API. How useful that null

    • Websites and advertising companies will know there's a person interested in a certain Topic, but they won't be able to tell who you are specifically.

      Really, because this feels like a new vector to fingerprint users with. Google doesn't have a great track record with any of the stuff that has overlapped with their ability to sell ads, so I don't think anyone should give them trust here. Would love to know more.

      As I understand it (note that I have no non-public information) Topics is specifically designed to provably resist fingerprinting, using the ideas from differential privacy [wikipedia.org]. I understand the skepticism, which derives from decades of Google tracking (though, honestly, I think the assumptions about tracking are a lot worse than the reality -- which should be clear from the relatively low quality of ad targeting), but Topics is specifically designed to support Google's ability to sell ads, without data collect

    • Really, because this feels like a new vector to fingerprint users with. Google doesn't have a great track record with any of the stuff that has overlapped with their ability to sell ads, so I don't think anyone should give them trust here. Would love to know more.

      Actually quite the opposite. Google has an excellent track record of removing the ability for 3rd parties to fingerprint users. They hate it when the competition does what they do themselves.

      Stopping 3rd parties from fingerprinting you doesn't overlap with their ability to sell ads, it actively promotes it.

  • who did what in the where now? (Score:5, Informative)

    by snowshovelboy ( 242280 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @07:54PM (#63830954)

    Google will disable third-party cookies in Chrome for good, marking the end of their decades-long reign of privacy-violating terror.

    I don't think this will end Google's decades-long reign of privacy-violating terror....

    • Re: who did what in the where now? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by liqu1d ( 4349325 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @10:11PM (#63831178)
      Itâ(TM)s just morphed it into something more under Google direct control. In the past all companies had access to similar datasets now their datasets will diminish compared with Google sole ability to track users. Removing competition under the guise of privacy. This isnâ(TM)t a win for privacy by any stretch of the imagination sadly.
      • I suspect this will actually lead to more intrusive tracking being developed. Third parties wonâ(TM)t want to lose their edge so theyâ(TM)ll work out other ways around it.

        • What i want to know is what edge?

          All this tracking, and nothing i get ads for things i have looked at recently but just because i was watching a show doesnt mean i need to see a million ads about it.

          Ads are to raise brand awareness if you are already aware of thr brand then more ads is wasted money.

          • Edge being their ability to make money. I personally donâ(TM)t see ads as effective but they must be to an extent or it wouldnâ(TM)t be worth so much money. Regardless I donâ(TM)t block them ads keep the internet free.
        • The most obvious way is an update to the provider's ToS and start running some background code that constantly sends data back. Most of these sites love making popups for downloading their "app", no reason they can't make it mandatory. (Especially for any site that requires a login.)

          Google doesn't want to play ball? Doesn't need to. They can and will find ways around it. Barring that, they will start supporting alternative web browsers that are more acclimatable to their desired tracking. With every singl
      • "Google" and "privacy" don't go together in the same sentence.
    • Sadly it comes just a few years too late. We've already got a bunch of privacy laws predicated on the old model, and trying to get laws modernized is slower than tectonic plate movements.

    • I don't think this will end Google's decades-long reign of privacy-violating terror....

      It seems like only yesterday little Googy was talking about being all grown up and how he would teach everyone, Don't be Evil...

      Wonder when the rest of the world is gonna grow up and stop believing IPOs...

  • With Topics, Chrome will keep track of all the websites you're looking at and sort you into a variety of categories. This tracking happens in your browser and the data stays on your device. Neither Google nor anyone else gets to see your browsing history or learn anything about you as an individual throughout this process.

    OK, so how does Google make money??

    • Re:Somebody is lying (Score:4, Insightful)

      by marcle ( 1575627 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @08:30PM (#63831020)

      Yeah, this is Google's baked-in tracking. You'll be tracked, your info sold to advertisers, and you can't opt out. Your best bet is to ditch Chrome and switch to Firefox.

      • Re: Somebody is lying (Score:4, Interesting)

        by LindleyF ( 9395567 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @11:17PM (#63831312)
        Your "info" isn't what they sell; your ad views are. Your info is the secret that gives Google an edge; why would they share that when they don't have to?
        • Your info is what they sell. And not only to advertisers. Data-hungry government services use it also.
          • In aggregated ways, sure. Like your commute contributes to the overall real-time road conditions. But there's a ton of privacy law (mostly EU) that limits what can be done with PII. They can't just hand it over, and they don't have to anyway. The business is advertising; that doesn't require handing over your data. All it requires is using your data to target ads. The advertiser doesn't see your data; they are just told that someone in your category saw their ad.

          • Your info is what they sell. And not only to advertisers. Data-hungry government services use it also.

            It's really not. Google has never derived any significant revenues from selling data.

          • Your info is what they sell. And not only to advertisers. Data-hungry government services use it also.

            No it's not. Your info is Google's recipe for Coca Cola. It is never sold directly. Rather it is used to make products that they do sell, i.e. your eyeballs and access to you.

            You don't seem to understand how the ad business works. Only very few companies who do not see data as their primary business actually sell the data, (e.g. Verizon).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Google will never sell this information for a few reasons, the biggest one being anti-trust.

        The goal is to get rid of 3rd party cookies, and reduce the longevity of 1st party cookies. Since websites rely on those for targeted advertising, if Google just disabled them they would be hit with anti-trust investigations over their attempt to eliminate all the competition in the ad business. Similarly, setting themselves up as the only data broker on the internet would get the interest of regulators pretty quickl

      • and you can't opt out

        You specifically can opt out. But users won't. Privacy is dead, people don't care, and if you think otherwise you'll need to talk to the people in question... who can best be reached by messaging them on Facebook.

    • If the McDonalds corporation decided to stop selling fast food tomorrow, they would likely be able to survive on nothing more than turning themselves into a real estate management company, to rent out some of the most valuable real estate on the planet.

      Something tells me the largest mega-corps on the planet do hold some financial flexibility to become chameleons within some pet projects. Not like all of Google's revenue suddenly stopped with this move...

  • I don't know what google is up to, exactly, but ... anything that gets rid of all those "Our site uses cookies..." popups is good by me.

    OTOH if the browser is doing all this internally then it doesn't sound like it's easy to block. It's not like blocking doubleclick or google analytics in your hosts file any more.

    • Re: Ummm (Score:5, Insightful)

      by madbrain ( 11432 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @08:31PM (#63831026) Homepage Journal

      Sounds pretty easy to block - by not using Chrome.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Ceiu ( 8681133 )

        The problem here is that we're returning to the IE4 era of websites only being designed to work in specific browsers. Even as it is today, there are lots of sites that just plain don't work if you don't have a Chrome-like browser and a chunk of the scripts on the site permitted. Hell, just today on one of the sites linked from Slashdot on the article about the Switch 2, it won't load images unless you accept non-required cookies. I imagine the bar will just be moved from cookies to whatever this new data st

      • Sounds pretty easy to block - by not using Chrome.

        Where Chrome goes, others usually follow.

        • Sounds pretty easy to block - by not using Chrome.

          Where Chrome goes, others usually follow.

          In this case that's a good thing, because what Chrome is doing is good for users and for the web.

          When all browsers have killed third-party cookies, the era of massive data collection on the web will be at an end. If it doesn't come with something like Topics, which enables targeted advertising without data collection, the end of third-party cookies will also be the end of the web's economic model. Sites will either die or paywall.

      • Prediction: Google Chrome's popularity will remain unchanged and no one will give a shit.

        Anyone who cares about this will already not be using Chrome.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rexdude ( 747457 )
        And using what instead, Firefox, which has been Google's controlled opposition for years now? Mozilla almost entirely relies on Google search revenue financially.
        Every other browser is just a skin around Chrome's engine Blink. Whatever you use, it won't negate Google's utter dominance of browser engines and web standards - at a level Microsoft from the late 90s couldn't have dreamt of.

    • Re:Ummm (Score:5, Interesting)

      by RazorSharp ( 1418697 ) on Thursday September 07, 2023 @10:17PM (#63831186)

      anything that gets rid of all those "Our site uses cookies..." popups is good by me.

      They're replacing third-party cookies, not cookies. Practically every website will continue to use cookies. This merely prevents a site from serving you a cookie hosted on a third-party server, so active cookies will only be those originating on the site you are actually viewing. This has been the default behavior on Firefox and Safari for quite some time.

      OTOH if the browser is doing all this internally then it doesn't sound like it's easy to block.

      That's the whole point. Google found a way to redirect demands for privacy into a data monopoly. Marketers no longer have access to nearly as much data from Google Ads/Analytics as they once had. . .but Google still does. Now all the data is housed in Google's black box. Third-party data brokers and ad services have been tripping over themselves because their targeting has been completely ineffective since Apple rolled out their privacy protections. Now they will have nothing to offer.

      What Google has effectively done is say, "Everyone can now have privacy on the internet. . .except nothing is private from Google."

      • I'm deeply skeptical all 3p cookies can be blocked -- those blue "f" and tweeter (X?) icons infesting many, many content pages are tagged images from 3p servers who can inquire for cookies.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        The longer term goal is for most cookies to go away, and cookies to be limited to short lifespans. Combined with making it easier to log in to websites, it won't be necessary to keep cookies from sites you haven't visited for more than a month or two.

        That will be a big privacy win because it will break most online tracking, except for websites that you visit regularly. And even those websites won't be able to see what other websites you visit, unless they share accounts and you are logged in to multiple pla

      • What Google has effectively done is say, "Everyone can now have privacy on the internet. . .except nothing is private from Google."

        I don't think you understand the changes. Google won't have access to any of your data; it'll never leave your device. Google will have control over how your device deduces topics of interest to you, but all advertisers will get to see the outputs of that process. So Google is in a sense in control... but without access to your data, and it's hard to see how they get a signficant competitive advantage, since the browser will serve the same topics to all ad networks.

    • I don't know what google is up to, exactly, but ... anything that gets rid of all those "Our site uses cookies..." popups is good by me.

      This does not do that.

  • This is just Google raising the barrier of entry, so no other company can follow their old footsteps build up a database of users profiles for delivering ads.

    It is no different from the tactics used in other industries, such as regulatory capture. Instead of legal barrier, Google just use technical ones.

    • This is just Google raising the barrier of entry, so no other company can follow their old footsteps build up a database of users profiles for delivering ads.

      It is no different from the tactics used in other industries, such as regulatory capture. Instead of legal barrier, Google just use technical ones.

      I don't think you understand the technical architecture here. This change also kills Google's ability to build a database of user profiles. The user profile data will exist only on user devices and never be sent anywhere. And it doesn't even give Google an advantage over other ad networks, because the topics list derived from it will be provided to all ad networks, not just Google's.

  • And will eliminate Googles REAL threat: Ad blocking.
  • Will this be the end of the absurd cookie banner? Billions of web site forced to buy, install, maintain, store data when the browser could do it all. Nope. Probably this will come up with a new more absurd law in europe.
  • Promises that he will never eat the chickens.

  • I remember a time when web browsers had the functionality to just browse the web...

  • It is interesting how I had to go through several links from the article so that I could finally confirm what is one very interesting (I suppose?) aspect of this tech for Slashdot, which is the use of PETs (Privacy Enhancing Technologies) as the tech behind Privacy Sandbox. It is the sorts of Homomorphic Encryption, Multi-Party Computation and other fun stuff. Worth researching about it. Besides the fact that the data is held by Google Chrome, if the tech is well applied then it can indeed add a lot more pr

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