William Gallagher
Google Chrome's much-delayed blocking of third-party cookies is now under fire from German publishers and advertisers, who say it will break EU laws.
In 2020, Apple's Safari began blocking third-party cookies, beating Google's plan for Chrome by two years. Then Google postponed the move until 2023, saying "it's become clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right."
Now according to the Financial Times, hundreds of publishers, advertisers and media groups in Germany have asked the EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager to intervene. The country's Axel Springer, publisher of Politico, has lead a 108-page complaint to the EU, seen by the publication.
"Publishers must remain in a position where they are allowed to ask their users for consent to process data, without Google capturing this decision," says the complaint. "Google must respect the relationship between publishers and users without interfering."
Google's privacy sandbox plan for its Chrome browser, is intended to protect users by ending third-party cookies and replacing them with other forms of ad delivery tools.
"Many other platforms and browsers have already stopped supporting third-party cookies," a Google spokesperson told the Financial Times, "but Google is the only one to do this openly and in consultation with technical standards bodies, regulators, and the industry, while also proposing new, alternative technologies."
Separately, Google has reportedly stepped up its lobbing of the EU over its proposals to curb Big Tech with its Digital Markets Act.
Charles Martin
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5 Comments
OK, interesting point of view. How about putting it to a vote instead of just representing the interests of big business? Ask the people how many of them want all cookies blocked and how many want a choice.
Axel Springer never seems to know when to stop with all this [redacted]. We, the user don't want all your tracking [redacted] on our devices. We want to choose what bits of your stuff we allow. If I want to modify the data stream to remove ads and cookies when it is on my device then that's my business. Your rights IMHO end as soon as the data hits my device. Then I can do what I want with it.
That said, I don't want Google or anyone else for that matter injecting their own ads into the data stream that is destined for my device.
There is a reason that any Google service or product is banned in my home. I can choose NOT to use Google or at least only use the minimum needed to get websites to work but not being able to nuke adverts served by other people is my right as a freeman.
A plague of both of them but only slightly less for Google than Springer.
Interested to see what the EU does as this is probably desired by all the privacy advocates in the EU.
Hmmm...if it's an opt-in choice, they're upset that they don't control the opt-in choice? Is that the crux of their argument, because that doesn't make any sense. The user can still choose to opt-in by changing the cookie settings for the sites they want to opt into in the browser, site by site. I'm really having a hard time following their "logic". I am guessing they're hoping for a technologically illiterate court to rule in their favor, or they're just so illiterate themselves they don't understand how ignorant their stance is.