Google’s decision to kill off third-party cookies has already elicited multiple antitrust lawsuits and a U.S. congressional probe. Now, its attempt to replace the cookie is attracting regulatory attention.
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On Jan. 8, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority launched an investigation into whether Google’s proposals for replacing third-party cookies — through an effort Google has branded Privacy Sandbox — “could cause advertising spend to become even more concentrated on Google’s ecosystem at the expense of its competitors,” according to a CMA announcement about the investigation.
Under pressure from governments and consumers over data privacy infringement concerns, Google a year ago said it will disable third-party cookies by 2022 in its Chrome browser, which is used by more than 60% of the world’s web users. The move will effectively disable a primary way that ads are targeted and content is personalized on publishers’ sites. By extension, it could compromise publishers’ abilities to make money from online advertising and push people, their data and — along with them — ad dollars further within the walls of Google’s already dominant properties, according to ad tech and publishing executives.
Google’s decision to disable the third-party cookie has been referenced as examples of anti-competitive behavior in recent antitrust suits against the company, too. A multi-state antitrust suit filed in December claimed Google uses its “massive information advantage strategically to harm any publisher who refuses to use its intermediaries.” Another recent antitrust suit filed on behalf of publishers claimed that Google’s cookie decision was “exclusionary.” Federal lawmakers also highlighted antitrust concerns over Google’s third-party cookie plans in a 2020 report from the U.S. House Subcommittee on Antitrust.
Through its Privacy Sandbox initiative, Google has proposed an evolving collection of ad targeting and measurement methods for replacing third-party cookies. The sandbox project is open to participation from other ad tech firms who can join in through an online forum, the Worldwide Web Consortium. However, ad tech providers and publishers are wary of how open Google actually is to their participation.
“Privacy Sandbox is trying to replace an open and interoperable technology with one that is Google controlled,” wrote James Rosewell, director of Marketers for an Open Web a group whose complaints against Google helped prompt the CMA investigation. “This will force more marketers into their walled garden and will spell the end of the independent and Open Web.” Rosewell is CEO of 51 Degrees, a mobile ad and publishing tech firm.
Critics question Google’s commitment to a collaborative cookie replacement process
Despite the seemingly collaborative setting, Google’s Privacy Sandbox is under increasing scrutiny throughout the digital media industry and now from the U.K. government because Privacy Sandbox is under Google’s control.
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