Don’t be fooled: Google’s latest announcement on third-party cookies doesn’t mean it will stop tracking you. Thread. vox.com/recode/2021/3/…
Last week, Google announced that after phasing out third-party cookies, “we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor [] use them in our products.” That’s nice, but a far cry from not tracking you. blog.google/products/ads-c…
We’ve written about the problems with Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), one of Google’s proposals to replace tracking cookies for advertisers. But even without this new technology, Google’s post-cookie surveillance will be nearly as powerful as ever. eff.org/deeplinks/2021…
For starters, nothing is changing with Google’s “first-party data,” collected through its products like Search and YouTube. Without third-party cookies, Google, Facebook, and other big platforms will have a comparative advantage over independent third-party advertisers.
Google still has ways of tracking your browsing on third-party sites, too. For example, any time you “Sign In with Google” on an independent app or website, Google can tie that activity to your account. It’s not clear how Google uses that data.
According to Datanyze, Google Sign-In is used by nearly 30,000 domains around the Web. This is one of several sources of web browsing data Google will continue to access without cookies, and it’s not even the biggest. datanyze.com/market-share/s…
That would be Chrome Sync. Whenever a user downloads Chrome, they’re nagged to sign in and “sync” their data with Google. By default, their entire browsing history is shared with Google, and can be used to target ads. support.google.com/chrome/answer/… 
Google controls over 60% of the browser market, and nearly 2 billion users have Google accounts. Hundreds of millions of users likely share their history through Chrome Sync. @Google must clarify whether it will continue using their data to target ads. gs.statcounter.com/browser-market…
Finally, mobile apps will be totally unaffected by changes to cookies. As phones have grown more popular and more powerful, in-app ads have gradually eaten away at the Web advertising market. And mobile apps still give trackers free rein.
While iOS now grants users control over how they’re tracked, Android continues to allow third-party trackers in every app access to its Ad ID, the equivalent of a third-party cookie. And Google owns the largest mobile ad network in the world. admob.google.com/home/
The third-party cookie is on its way out. Google faces pressure from regulators, users, and competitors like Apple and Mozilla who have already restricted access to trackers. Removing cookies from Chrome is the next logical step.
Killing the tracking cookie is good for privacy, but it will mostly affect Google’s smaller competitors, and will barely put a dent in Google’s own surveillance. Don’t expect Google to stop tracking you any time soon.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
