Comment by TechBro8615
3 years ago
Ok, so what is the product in the case of Google? As a user I've been led to believe the product is Google Chrome, a web browser that can browse the open internet. But it seems like in Google's mind, the product is my attention, which they sell to advertisers on behalf of publishers who insert tracking code (ads) on their sites. So in effect, the previously open internet becomes a product belonging to Google, where every site with adsense on it may as well be a Google property, in the sense that it's Google who is the ultimate benefactor of the fact that I viewed multiple sites in its "network."
This is a fine argument when talking about walled gardens like Facebook (setting aside for a second the issue of FB tracking pixels) - the entire site is their property, and it's their right to track me within it. But what rubs me the wrong way about Google adding tracking features to Chrome, is that they're exploiting an open platform to essentially turn it into a giant walled garden. And many publishers wouldn't necessarily be okay with this, in the sense that they're helping their competitors by leaking tracking data that ultimately leads to higher priced ads on those competing websites. But they don't have a choice because Google has an advertising monopoly.
The root problem is that the leading browser is developed by the leading advertising company, even though there's no fundamental reason for the two products to be so closely coupled. As a result, malign incentives leak into the product development because unlike other browsers from companies not supported by ads, which have removed third party cookies with no adverse consequences, Chrome cannot do the same without hurting their parent business. But note how fundamentally this has no impact on the browser itself - the conundrum is an artifact of who develops the browser.
In an ideal world, a web browser would be a piece of software thats either bundled with my operating system and subsidized by hardware sales of the manufacturer (as is the case with Safari and Apple), or if I wanted an alternative, an application that I could purchase with a one time payment or even a recurring fee. I would happily support the development of the product by paying for it, as I do with many products. But it's a false dichotomy to suggest that's what the Chromium tracking code is doing - it's supporting the Google monopoly, which extends far beyond just Chrome. If Google were simply a company that offered a web browser, then none of this would be an issue - third party cookies would be gone and there would be no need to add any tracking code, because removing the cookies didn't do any material harm to their business. But alas that's not the case, and we the users are left holding the bag and paying for it by letting Google and advertisers follow us around the internet.
> So in effect, the previously open internet becomes a product belonging to Google, where every site with adsense on it may as well be a Google property, in the sense that it's Google who is the ultimate benefactor of the fact that I viewed multiple sites in its "network."
You're saying this like it hasn't already happened. We're already long past this point because of third party cookies and browser fingerprinting. Because of third party cookies, not only can Google do this (and they have), Facebook, Amazon, and really anyone with enough money and incentive to get their scripts added to other sites can do this.
Everything you're talking about in your response seems to assume that we're living in this world where, right now, no one can track your activity once you leave their specific site and Google adding the Topics API will be some watershed moment. It's not, we're already there and we have been for almost a decade.
The entire point of my original question was how is what Google is proposing worse than what is out there now. Since you seem to keep ignoring what is possible right now through third party cookies, I think I'm done with this discussion.
It has already happened! Exactly. But while other browser vendors are taking measures to "put the genie back in the bottle," like removing third party tracking cookies, enabling declarative native content blockers, prominently displaying which "trackers" you've been exposed to, etc. - Google is an outlier, in that it's finding ways to circumvent the privacy preserving measures introduced by other browsers, while still disingenuously claiming its new "privacy preserving" (oxymoron) tracking technology aligns with the "spirit" of the changes.
So yes, it's "already like that." But it doesn't have to be. That's why browsers are differentiating themselves by actually preserving user privacy, by declaring war on hostile features like third party cookies, and empowering the user with tools for monitoring and customizing content blockers. It's only Google that is going out of their way to introduce unnecessary complexity under the guise of "preserving privacy" - because they've been caught with their pants down tracking you, and now they want to gaslight you into thinking they're wearing pants - preserving your privacy - when in reality their entire narrative is built on a false premise that tracking is necessary, and if only it can be done "privately enough," then not only should you be okay with it but Google should be commended for its efforts to protect your privacy!
It's all a bit rich, and reminds me of Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal. Somehow they were able to convince the media that Cambridge Analytica was the bad guy, even though they never did anything that wasn't explicitly documented with sample code in the Facebook API docs. Facebook created a platform that is almost by definition designed for relinquishing your privacy (by asking you to publish your personal data to the internet), and then tried to retroactively define its boundaries by insisting there is some notion of "published to your 1000+ friends, but still private." In reality they created the walled garden, collected all your data within it, and then gave developers tools to read the data they collected. And when caught with their pants down, they insisted the problem was that the rules weren't "private enough" - when in reality the problem was that Facebook had any of this data in the first place. The same applies here to Google. The question is not how the tracking "works," but rather why the tracking exists.