Google’s Privacy Sandbox not private enough, says regulator’s document

Google’s proposed cookie replacement technology, the Privacy Sandbox, has key flaws that could allow users to be identified, according to a draft report from a major regulator.

Seen by the Wall Street Journal, the draft report from the UK’s privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, suggests that given systemic noncompliance some advertisers will be able to continue tracking users across sites. The full report is expected to appear at the end of April. 

Why a UK privacy regulator’s concerns matter

It may not be the privacy regulator’s direct intervention that forces a change to Google’s post-cookie plans, which are set to go live globally across its dominant Google Chrome web browser this year, but how it helps to form a broader assessment by the UK competition regulator (the Competition and Markets Authority) that the search giant has promised to apply globally. 

These included assurances that it would not give preferential treatment to Google-owned products and services.

Should it fail to secure the CMA’s blessing, however, the company will be unable to block cookies until the regulator agrees that a replacement is acceptable, as agreed in February 2022. This could, once again, mean even more delays to the deprecation of the third party cookie. 

In context

• Over half of marketers are not well prepared for the withdrawal of third-party cookies, while a majority (58%) of global marketing leaders lack a working understanding of how changing privacy regulations will affect their work. 
• Meanwhile, some observers have questioned whether Google’s Privacy Sandbox is a strategic ploy to consolidate its position under the guise of better privacy.
• Observers of the online advertising industry will be aware of the many false starts, delays, and tactical switches that have made up the deprecation of the cookie, not least the competition question asked by UK regulators the CMA, beginning in 2021.

Sourced from the WSJ, WARC, The Current