Google Chrome offers a "privacy sandbox" to reform the evils of advertising

Google's Google Chrome team on Thursday proposed a "privacy sandbox" designed to give us the best of both worlds: ads that publishers can target based on our interests but do not violate our privacy. This is a major development in a field where Chrome, the dominant browser, has fallen behind its competitors.

Browsers already include security sandboxes and restrictions designed to limit malicious programs and limit their possible damage. The privacy sandbox proposed by Google would similarly limit the tracking technology, according to the details of the proposal published by Google.

The privacy sandbox is "a secure environment for customization that also protects users' privacy," said Justin Schuh, director of Chrome's engineering, specializing in security issues, in a dedicated blog post respect for confidentiality. "Our goal is to create a set of standards that is more consistent with users' expectations of privacy."

For example, Chrome would limit some private data to the browser – an approach taken by rival Brave Software with its competitor-driven web browser that focuses on privacy. And this could restrict the sharing of personal data until it is shared by a large group of people using technologies called confidentiality and federated learning.

The protection of privacy is a major concern of the tech giants, with Apple at the helm in several ways. The debate proved difficult for Google, which offers useful and free services, such as search and Gmail, which serve ads. It's also one of the largest companies used by other website and app publishers to run ads. The problem has been particularly highlighted for Chrome, where the protection of our privacy is at odds with its advertising activities.

The confidentiality sandbox, the fruit of several months of work by Google researchers, is a major milestone that, if it works and is accepted by websites and advertisers, could help Google get out of trouble.

The ultimate effect of Google's work on Google's privacy confidentiality has not yet been defined, but it should be noted that the company is even considering changes. About 83% of Google's revenue in the second quarter from advertising – $ 33 billion in total – which is a strong incentive for the company to keep online ads as profitable as possible.

Targeted ads – those that are customized to the preferences of websites and advertisers that infer our online behavior – are more valuable to publishers. Google has also released study figures that indicate that publisher advertising revenue is down 52% when browsers block text files called cookies used to track our behavior and target ads.

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It's good to hear Google talking seriously about privacy, said Brave CEO Brendan Eich, who previously headed Mozilla's Firefox browser. But he also expressed skepticism about the success of Google's efforts.

"It sounds like a weak sauce in a misleading bottle of" privacy issues "," Eich tweeted. Google is "the last entity to trust to forge a compromise ".

Blocking the tracker becomes commonplace

The blocking of cookies allowing us to follow our sites has become commonplace. Apple's Safari is the leading browser that does this, with a technology called Intelligent Tracking Prevention. Firefox has also started blocking the default tracking, as well as Brave, since its launch in 2016. The new Microsoft Edge, based on Chromium, will also block tracking.

Another problem with tracking cookies blocking is that websites and advertisers continue to monitor us with technology called fingerprints. This is not as powerful a signal as tracking with cookies, but it can help us identify ourselves and all major browsers are working on approaches to blocking fingerprints.

"Unlike cookies, users can not erase their fingerprint and therefore can not control how their information is collected.We think that this compromises the user's choice and that it is wrong" said Schuh.

Online advertising has become stigmatized due to confidentiality issues. If you do not buy a product, you are the product, says a popular saying. Translation: sites and free applications, funded by advertising, survive by selling your personal data to advertisers.

But simply charging everybody for everything brings other problems. Newspaper publishers increasingly rely on payment screens that restrict free articles, but also limit their readership and make it easier for wealthier people to protect their privacy.

"Blocking cookies with no other way to deliver relevant ads significantly reduces publishers' primary means of financing, putting the future of the dynamic Web at risk," said Schuh.

But privacy can not wait and "the status quo is simply not tenable," said Peter Dolanjski, director of Mozilla's security and privacy products. Mozilla has contacted the publishers before activating its default anti-tracking technology, he said. "While recognizing that there is a negative impact on revenues, many publishers we have discussed see this as a short-term problem, as online advertising catches up with the new reality," he said. -he declares. "They essentially view privacy as part of their long-term strategic business interests."

Google's privacy sandbox details

Google's proposal includes several mechanisms to close conduits that today are fleeing personal information and identification. Among them:

• An idea called FLOC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) that uses browser-based automatic learning software to evaluate the interests of users. This information can then be shared with advertisers only if it concerns large groups of people (yes, groups), so that the ads can be targeted without the advertisers knowing the personal data of individuals.
• A trusted token that advertisers and publishers can use to reduce ad fraud by consolidating web users into two segments: approved and untrusted. Advertising fraud involves fictitious views and clicks of ads, which means that advertisers must pay even when no one actually sees them. Nowadays, advertising fraud attempts only follow individuals.
• A conversion measurement technology that will help advertisers determine which ads are performing well, such as those who buy an advertised product. It's complicated, especially since people can see an ad on one site and buy the product on another, but Google recognizes that its proposal has weaknesses, even for simpler cases. Its conversion measurement technology will therefore probably be one of the many efforts needed to "replicate valid advertising use cases on the web platform in ways that maintain privacy," said Google.
• A "confidentiality budget" that would limit the amount of personal information that a website can access, in part to try to counteract fingerprints.

Google's proposal, while complete, also brings many challenges. Its success is based on the success of publishers, advertisers and other browser makers. And Google is proposing new standards for the Web – a collaborative development process that often takes years.

Originally released August 22 at 19:20 Pacific Time.
Updates, 9:49 am: Add a comment from Brave; 10:26: Includes more background; 1:09 p.m.: Add more background; 2:06 p.m.: Add a comment from Mozilla.