Comment by StewardMcOy
3 years ago
I didn't read the Ars article as saying FLoC or Topics make Chrome less privacy-preserving than it was before, but rather that, once Chrome disables third-party cookies, they make Chrome less privacy-preserving than other browsers with third-party cookies disabled. What the author would prefer is that Google also disable third-party cookies and also not ship FLoC or Topics.
> What the author would prefer is that Google also disable third-party cookies and also not ship FLoC or Topics.
That's not an option now thanks to multiple antitrust regulatories. Google actually tried to get rid of 3p cookies to use it as an advantage against competitors as well as privacy friendly PR but this has been blocked. One example from CMA (but not limited to): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62052c52e90e0...
Sorry for responding 12 hours later, but I felt I should actually read the ruling here before I replied.
It's certainly interesting. The CMA seems to be attempting to balance interests of multiple parties, including both user privacy, healthy competition in the ads space, and the ability for digital publishers to generate revenue from displaying ads.
However, most of it appears to focus on the way Google's superior access to information could distort competition. It's not just about cookies. For example. Google could mine synced history data from Chrome.
Now, I'm not so naive as to think this would actually happen, but again, the Ars author's solution here could solve that particular problem: If Google ceased all behavior-based advertising in favor of, for example, subject-based advertising, there would be no distortions to competition. Google can't track you, and neither can other advertisers. Everyone has a level playing field.
Of course, that would drop revenues for digital publishers and advertising networks, including Google, but it would solve the problems of user privacy and distorted competition.
The one thing this ruling makes very clear though, is that it's very difficult to balance these concerns while Google makes a browser. There's a conflict between Google running a behavior-based advertising network and shipping a browser, and these regulatory bodies seem to be bending over backwards to try to find a solution where both of these things can exist. They could most certainly have taken the much easier road of forcing Google to discontinue Chrome.
> If Google ceased all behavior-based advertising in favor of, for example, subject-based advertising, there would be no distortions to competition.
That still doesn't work. Google already has built dominant ad network/serving infrastructure as well as exclusive access to billions of its first party user data which gives asymmetric power to Google against any other competitors. Probably the only advantage that those competitors have is their own "secret sauce" on user data and removing 3p cookie effectively eliminates this edge and gives Google unilateral power.
The core problem is that privacy and antitrust regulations usually don't work very well together unless it's carefully designed. EU tried it for GDPR (which took 4 years to design) and it only has strengthened big-tech's position.
> They could most certainly have taken the much easier road of forcing Google to discontinue Chrome.
It's much easier said than done. What's the legal basis of doing this? The only applicable law is too general and requires intervention from the Judiciary. And this level of landmark antitrust cases usually takes several years with extremely high level of uncertainties. And it's worth noting that the US congress has failed to introduce a basic level of digital antitrust laws such as AICOA or OAMA, so good luck with any new direct regulations.
And even if assuming that everything works in your favor, the result is almost guaranteed to be other big guys (likely MS) taking the share and doing something worse since the market is already strongly incentivizing this behavior. To apply the same "correction", it will take another multiple years of trial against more well prepared defendant. Regulators and legislators are not that dumb and they actually care about all those unintended consequences.
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Regarding the option of Google ceasing all behavior-based tracking to avoid competition issues: I doubt they could do that to the ad industry unilaterally. Even if they would then be following the same rules themselves, I don't think they'd be able to get away with choosing how all other advertisers must operate by doing that.
Regarding the "easier road" of having Google discontinue Chrome: WTF That would not be easier and would affect so much more.
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