In its latest update on its plans to replace third-party ads with ads, Google said testing on one specific recommendation looks promising.
Google was planning to share some new results demonstrating the effectiveness of the “Federated Learning of Cohorts” recommendation that is part of the Chrome browser’s “Privacy Sandbox” in a blog post running Monday. The “Sandbox” is an initiative launched in 2019 to find alternatives to the cookie while at the same time reducing the impact on publishers and other players. In Google’s words, it was about finding a solution that will both protect users ’privacy and allow content to stay free on the open web.
Shortly after announcing the campaign, Google said it would end support for third-party cookies, which fuel much of the digital advertising ecosystem, in its Chrome browser within two years of January. 2020.
Chrome engineers have been working with the industry at large, including with web standards body W3C, on ideas in the sandbox suggested by Google and other ad tech players. A number of those ideas are probably moving forward, Google says.
“This is one recommendation,” Chetna Bindra, product manager for consumer trust and privacy at Google, told CNBC about the “FLoC” progress. “Replacing third-party cookies is not just the one-size-fits-all or single recommendation … There will be no single final API that goes ahead, it will be a collection of them that allows things like advertising based on interest, as well as measurement usage issues, where it is critical that we can ensure that advertisers can measure the effectiveness of their ads. ”
Bindra said the company is “extremely confident” about the progress of the proposals and tests to date.
A Google post on Monday states that test results show that FLoC (pronounced as a flock of birds, according to several themed bird recommendations such as “Turtledove” and “Swallow”) is an effective signal for a focus on privacy for third-party cookies. . “It says advertisers can expect to see at least 95% of the changes per dollar spent compared to cookie-based advertising.
FLoC would largely group people based on similar browsing behavior, meaning that only “cohort IDs” and not individual user IDs would be used to target them. Web history and input for the algorithm would be stored on the browser, with the browser only displaying a “cohort” that will hold thousands of people.
“We’re really seeing that one of those first Sandbox technologies for interest – based ads is almost as effective as third – party cookies,” Bindra said. “Certainly a lot more testing is coming. We are keen for advertisers and ad tech to get involved directly. ”
Bindra said those numbers, which may include people with behaviors such as an interest in gardening or rock music, would still allow for a focus based on those interests. . Rather than focusing on an individual level, however, this would be aimed at groups.
“The real difference is that they no longer monitor all users across the web. That very idea is a secret to those users who now gathered within a cohort, “Bindra said.
She said the figures from FLoC tests should be encouraging for publishers. Next, Chrome will release the numbers for public testing with their next release in March, and plans to start testing FLoC-based affiliates with Google Ads advertisers in the second quarter, the blog post says.
Myles Younger, senior director at MightyHive’s global data usage, said all of Sandbox’s recommendations are “how we can build new features into Chrome’s web browser to simultaneously unlock privacy users and the death of the third-party cookie while using it effectively retains the ability of advertising brands. ”He spoke before Google’s latest findings were released.
One question is whether players are going to use it.
“I’m not sure if it’s something that Google is able to turn around and turn on,” he said. “Publishers need to use it. People need to start using this system. [Google] it needs to prove that it works. ”
Paul Bannister, chief strategy officer at CafeMedia, said advertisers and publishers fear they don’t know because it pertains to what’s to come.
“I think we all want to believe that this will be good and we all want to get to a place where users have more privacy and the web works better,” he said. given the complexity and technicality of the process, it is not clear what will happen next.
He said there was some fear that such actions could benefit the “walled gardens” of companies such as Facebook, and away from open internet advertising.
UK trust authorities are also monitoring the plans and examining whether the plan to remove third-party cookies from Chrome could hurt online advertising competition. The Competition and Markets Authority is looking into whether Google’s plans could cause advertisers to shift spending to Google’s own devices at the expense of its competitors.
In an email response, Bindra said, “The privacy sandbox has been an open campaign from the outset and we welcome the involvement of the CMA as we work to develop new proposals to be the foundation for a healthy web supported by third party cookies. “
Some privacy advocates are also skeptical about the “FLoC” approach. The Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in 2019 that these numbers could be used in harmful ways, allowing advertisers to represent and filter discrimination groups representing vulnerable numbers.
“A herd name would be a behavioral credit score: a tattoo on your digital front that gives a brief summary of who you are, what you like, where you go, what you buy, and who you belong to. ‘link, “EFF staff technologist Bennett Cyphers wrote in the blog post.” The names of the herds are likely to be unbelievable to consumers, but they could reveal highly sensitive information to third parties. ”
Creating concurrent machine learning based on health issues or low income status or other cognitive influences is a question of creation.
“It could make things very urgent and make an argument illegal,” Bannister said. “How can Chrome defend against that?”
Google said in documents that its analysis assesses whether a cohort is aware of not learning why it is aware, and said that groups that exhibit “sensitive areas” such as race, sexuality or personal cruelty or whether the meditation algorithms have been redesigned to minimize the relationship.
Google has said it is opposed to its policies to serve personalized ads on these sensitive areas.
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