Google's vice president overseeing the Privacy Sandbox project has announced the decision to maintain the current approach to blocking third-party cookies in Chrome — cookies set when visiting domains different from the current page's domain will only be blocked by default in 'incognito' mode. The use of Privacy Sandbox technologies within the ecosystem will also be reconsidered, with plans for further progress to be prepared in the coming months.
It is noted that the decision was made because much has changed since the launch of the Privacy Sandbox initiative in 2019, for example, the advancement of privacy protection technologies has accelerated, AI-based methods for ensuring user security have been implemented, and the regulatory framework for industry regulation has changed worldwide.
Last summer, Google abandoned the idea of completely discontinuing support for third-party cookies in Chrome, but intended to introduce a dialogue for users to confirm consent for enabling blocking. Now, this plan has been canceled, and blocking will only be performed when the corresponding settings are specified in the 'Privacy and Security' section, i.e., instead of introducing the concept of 'blocking by default, but users can opt out,' the scheme 'third-party cookies are allowed by default, but users can opt to enable blocking' will remain.
Third-party cookies are understood to be cookies set when accessing domains different from the current page's domain. For example, when blocking third-party cookies, code from site 'C', embedded via iframe on sites 'A' and 'B', will not be able to handle cookies common to those sites, and the cookies set by site 'C' will be unavailable when loading code while visiting sites 'A' and 'B'. Third-party cookies are commonly used to track user movements between sites in ad network code, social media widgets, and web analytics systems. In Firefox, third-party cookies have been blocked by default since 2019, and in Safari since 2020.
I stedet for tredjeparts-cookies fremmer Google en række specialiserede API'er, der tager hensyn til brugernes behov for privatliv, såsom FedCM (Federated Credential Management, gør det muligt at oprette sammenlagte identifikationsservice), Private State Tokens (muliggør segmentering af brugere uden brug af tværgående identifikatorer), Topics (giver mulighed for at rangere brugere efter interessegrupper), Protected Audience (målretning og analyse af publikum) og Attribution Reporting (evaluering af annonceeffektivitet).
På trods af Googles mangeårige bestræbelser på at fremme Privacy Sandbox-teknologier var reklameindustrien ikke klar til at opgive brugen af sporende cookies. Ændringen har også skabt bekymring hos regulerende myndigheder om, at blokeringen af tredjeparts-cookies kan anvendes af Google til at undertrykke konkurrence og misbruge Chromes dominerende position på browsermarkedet for at give fordele til deres reklameservices.
Derudover har Googles initiativ mødt modstand i samfundet og kritik for, at de alternativer, der skal erstatte sporende cookies, ikke løser alle problemer og skaber nye risici, såsom at skabe betingelser for diskrimination af brugere og tilstedeværelsen af en yderligere faktor, der muliggør skjult identifikation og sporing af brugerens bevægelser.
I meddelelsen nævnes det også, at der er planer om at aktivere IP Protection i 'inkognito'-tilstand. Aktiveringen er planlagt til tredje kvartal i år. IP Protection vil skjule brugerens IP-adresse fra webstedsejere ved at sende trafikken ikke direkte, men gennem en proxy.servereNår IP Protection er aktiveret, vil den målrettede server kun se proxyens adresse som den indkommende IP-adresse, ligesom ved brug af VPN. For anonymisering af anmodningen nævnes muligheden for at kæde anmodningen gennem flere proxyer. I så fald vil informationen om klientens IP-adresse kun være kendt af den første proxy, mens den anden proxy i kæden vil se den første proxy's adresse.
Kilde: opennet.ru
