Google Chrome users are being tracked. Last year’s decision to resurrect tracking cookies triggered a privacy storm, as did alleged data collection from private browsing sessions. But Google’s planned new upgrade should fix this once and for all. Don’t get too excited, though. There’s a nasty new tracking surprise that has just gone live.
First to the good news. Tracking cookies will finally be killed by a one time “global prompt” upgrade, giving Chrome users an Apple-like choice between being tracked and (more likely) not being tracked. All good, albeit the timing is unclear and the industry seems worried that this may unfairly advantage Google, given its own account tracking. As such we await the inevitable regulatory green light and potential delays.
But while that’s a good privacy move, the surprising update that’s just gone live seems to be bad news for those same users benefiting from a one-time global prompt. We’re talking digital fingerprinting, which Google prohibited as “wrong” in 2019 but has now resurrected. As of February 16th, fingerprinting has also been expanded to track all your devices — such as smart TVs and gaming consoles, providing a rich new seam of your data for the advertising industry to mine.
“Privacy campaigners have called Google’s new rules on tracking people online ‘a blatant disregard for user privacy,” BBC News reported this weekend, citing Mozilla’s Martin Thomson warning that “Google has given itself – and the advertising industry it dominates – permission to use a form of tracking that people can’t do much to stop.”
The UK’s data regulator explains that “fingerprinting involves the collection of pieces of information about a device’s software or hardware, which, when combined, can uniquely identify a particular device and user,” echoing Thomson’s warning that “even privacy-conscious users will find this difficult to stop.”
Google says that the reversal reflects a new device landscape, with smart devices enabling “a broader range of surfaces on which ads are served,” while telling BBC News that “privacy-enhancing technologies offer new ways for our partners to succeed on emerging platforms… without compromising on user privacy.”
There was little furor when Google announced this change in December, as I reported at the time. But with it now live, there has been more of a pushback and it remains unclear how regulators will respond. French data regulator CNIL, for example, has warned that “the use of fingerprinting for advertising purposes requires the consent of users who must be able to refuse as simply as accept.”
Meanwhile, Google says “we continue to give users choice whether to receive personalized ads, and will work across the industry to encourage responsible data use.” Only time will tell what happens next as all our devices start reporting back. Clearly Google and the regulators can’t both be right. For the time being, fingerprinting can’t be stopped. We will need to see a mandatory opt-out to change that.
Chrome users are left with the irony of a simultaneous good move on tracking cookies and a bad move on fingerprinting. The ad industry needs your data, and that is unlikely to change. I have reached out to Google to ask whether an opt-out may come after all.
