Google tests Tracking Protection limit third-party cookies

Google tests Tracking Protection to limit third-party cookies

January 25, 2024 6:22 AM

Google is testing out a new feature that limits cross-site tracking on Chrome.

Google's Tracking Protection was rolled out as an option for 1% of Chrome users globally so developers can test it. Participants are selected at random.

Katherine Heaton, a claims focus group leader at Beazley, spoke with Digital Insurance about the release of Google's Tracking Protection and transparency around data collection.

How do you see Tracking Protection benefiting insurers?

Where I think it's really going to help insurance is that I think that a lot of the claims right now that we're seeing are involving the use of online, website tracking tools. So things like cookies and pixels. Browsers like Google are changing to a model where they're not going to allow third-party advertising cookies. What that means is that it's going to be harder for plaintiff's counsel to get large class actions certified. The question about whether somebody had their data tracked across websites, is really then going to boil down to, what type of browser was that individual person using? What did they know about their browser type and were they able to be tracked?

So, I think it will help our counsel defend these claims and be able to hopefully avoid class cert, or at least certify smaller classes of people who only use browser types that aren't blocking this sort of online tracking.

Could you explain how it works and what Google is rolling out?

It looks like Google just started to trial it on a certain small portion on Chrome, they're trying to roll this out overall and it will block third-party advertising cookies. What that means is there are third-party advertising cookies, or ones that third-party advertising companies track and view across multiple websites. So, if I'm using Chrome, and I'm going to multiple websites, these advertising cookies are tracking me, they're seeing, you're shopping here, you're looking at things over here. So, for example, I like this sort of product and then when I go to like my Facebook feed, it might show me an ad for that type of thing, maybe at a different store, or maybe it's going to show me a product I looked at. Those are third-party advertising cookies.

What Chrome is not blocking is, when you're on a website, you also have cookies that just help you with website functionality. And it's cookies that are placed by that company. So it can help them understand who's visiting their website, and what they're doing there, but those are just tracking on their website. That data is typically being fed back to the company, those first party cookies aren't then necessarily tracking me across to other websites.

Google is not the first to do this. Currently, Safari and Firefox also are blocking third party advertising cookies. I think the big change and the reason everybody is really excited about Google doing this is just the number of users. Once Google jumps on this blocking bandwagon, you'll have Safari, Firefox, and Chrome all blocking third party advertising cookies. Most people are using one of those browsers. So it's going to have a huge impact on the market.

What’s the significance of blocking third-party cookies and how does this fit into overall consumer expectations?

The purpose of most of these cookies is advertising, it's tracking what products you're looking at, and then advertising them back to you. There's a lot of money in this. People pay a lot of money to have targeted ads be sent to individuals that they know might be interested in a product, as opposed to having an ad go to somebody who doesn't care, right?

And so the reason that we have companies like Google and Apple concerned about this is that when people are online shopping, they're not necessarily aware that they're being tracked like this, it's one thing for me to go on to somebody's website and when I'm interacting with that website, I know that the website is taking my data, but I think they're taking my data so that the website functions for me. If I'm going to look at stuff and they can see what I'm looking at, I'm not necessarily thinking that some third party is also watching my behavior on this website, and then reporting it back to other third parties that I may have no relationship with. I think that what's happened is there is a creepiness to this and it feels uncomfortable, knowing that there are third parties that you have no contractual relationship with, you did not intend for them to take your data, and they're looking in, they're taking your data anyway, and sending it to somebody who you also didn't know was going to be getting your data.

I think people are much more comfortable with their data only going to an entity that they're intending to interact with. So I think that's why we're starting to see more of these browsers blocking that third-party advertising, cookie behavior. It's that creepiness of third parties lurking in the background.

Third-party advertising cookies made it really easy for those advertising companies to aggregate data and then sell it on the market and sell advertising hotspots. So it was just very convenient for them. I don't think that's going to go away, I think that there's still a huge drive for targeted advertising, people still want their ads to be displayed to people who are going to be interested in their products. And so what I think is going to happen is just a shift in how it gets done, I don't think they're going to stop collecting the data.

First-party cookies will still be on the website and so a company can still see that I'm shopping for shoes, they can still see what I'm looking at, they could then go and take that data and send that to their advertising company so that those shoes that I was just looking at on their website still get advertised to me. I think there's going to be just a little bit more of a roundabout process rather than having the advertiser directly looking at it.

Do you assume there will be more transparency around data tracking?

I think that this is one more tip on the scale of wanting transparency, having large companies like Google come out making a stand. We're also seeing this in class actions. And we're seeing some regulatory action in Europe. And in the United States now, regulators are interested in this sort of behavior and issuing penalties and fines around surreptitious collection of information without transparency, we're seeing a large volume of class actions arising out of this type of data collection.

I think that where this is all leading is, companies are starting to get savvy to the fact that they could run the risk of liability if they don't have more notices about what type of data they're collecting. So I think data will still get collected, but companies are starting to think more about having, like other pop ups come up to tell people what sort of data they're collecting and what purpose they're using it for. Or they're putting more detail like that, at least in our privacy policies, so that people can go and check that and have an awareness. I also think that with people being given more control over this, it's sort of the purpose behind Google's shift, it gives people the ability to control what data is being collected about them and not have these third parties that they're not aware of sitting in the background and collecting data.