These selected “guinea pigs” will receive a notification in Chrome letting them know they are participating in a privacy experiment. They will have Tracking Protection, a feature that prevents websites from using third-party cookies to track browsing habits. However, you may encounter some difficulties in this process; Sites built using these trackers may not run completely smoothly. Solution? Users can temporarily enable this feature by clicking the new eye icon in the browser bar.
This is just the first phase: Google plans to gradually roll out tracking protection to the entire Chrome user base and phase it out completely by mid-2024. While this is undoubtedly disrupting the online advertising landscape, it is being done in the name of privacy, or so the company would like us to believe. Tracking Protection replaces third-party cookies with a system that groups different users based on their browsing activity, allowing targeted advertising without directly revealing browsing history.
But not everyone is sure about this. Regulators have expressed concerns that the Private Sandbox initiative increases the company’s power over the digital advertising landscape. Only time will tell whether this “alternative” actually protects user privacy or simply changes the power dynamics in the online world.
Source: Ferra
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