A blog about competition, regulation and privacy in the digital era
Greetings to our readers – I haven’t published in a while, but Google’s latest announcement could not keep waiting. Google has just announced its plan to build the Privacy Sandbox on Android, with the stated aim of “introducing new, more private advertising solutions.” This comes only a couple of days after the UK Competition and … Continue reading Google announces Privacy Sandbox on Android
Last Friday the UK Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) published a 93-page long notice of intention to accept commitments offered by Google in relation to its Privacy Sandbox proposals, inviting all interested parties to submit their observations. By way of reminder, the CMA launched an investigation back in January 2021 into Google’s removal of third-party … Continue reading CMA publishes commitments offered by Google with respect to its Privacy Sandbox proposals, seeks comments
It is often thought that data protection policymakers want your personal data to be held within big firms’ walled gardens and shared with no-one, while competition policymakers want big firms to be broken up and your personal data to be freely distributed among firms. Is that right, and if so, what are we going to do … Continue reading The CMA-ICO’s joint statement on competition and data protection law– A major step forward
On Monday the US State AGs filed an amended complaint against Google with respect to ad tech, joined by five additional States. (Reminder: the State AGs sued Google in December 2020, arguing that the tech company has engaged in anticompetitive conduct and even entered into an unlawful agreement with Facebook to restrict competition in the … Continue reading The latest around Google and the Privacy Sandbox
Yesterday Google published a blog post regarding its approach to web tracking once third-party cookies are phased out in Chrome. The post was the talk of the day all over Twitter and the mainstream press, and certain commentators even suggested that Google has pledged to stop selling ads based on individual web browsing (a monumental … Continue reading Unpacking Google’s latest blog post on web tracking
The Competition and Markets Authority has just announced it will investigate Google's decision to remove third-party cookies from its Chrome browser in early 2022 and replace them with a set of proposals known as the Privacy Sandbox (NB: Google has justified this decision on privacy). The investigation - under Chapter II of the Competition Act … Continue reading CMA opens investigation into Google’s Privacy Sandbox browser changes
In an earlier post discussing the fate of targeted advertising, I noted that much of the current debate centers around issues of competition and privacy, and the inevitable trade-offs between them. While personalized advertising promises benefits for publishers and advertisers (and in theory users that value relevant ads), it is under increasing pressure from privacy … Continue reading New paper on Chrome and the Privacy Sandbox
In a video for The New York Times, computer scientist and philosopher Jaron Lanier described online advertising as “the little space in the middle” combining capitalism with the “socialist” concept that Internet content should be free. Now a multi-billion-dollar industry, online advertising is what funds free online content. It is also what has elevated Google … Continue reading What should be the fate of targeted advertising?
In an insightful article on AdExchanger, Allison Schiff notes that the ad industry is facing two interrelated "existential threats": government legislation (think of e.g., the GDPR or the CCPA) and policy changes coming from big tech (Google and Apple). But, contrary to what one might initially think, it is the platforms' changes that are the … Continue reading How tech platforms act as private regulators of privacy
It's the end of the cookie as we know it On 14 January 2020, Google broke the news that Chrome will phase out support for third-party cookies on Chrome within the next 2 years in order to "build a more private web" (official announcement here). The move is expected to have profound consequences for the … Continue reading Chrome to phase out third-party cookies