Last week Google backtracked on its longstanding promise to block thirdparty cookies in Chrome This is bad for your privacy and good for Googles business Thirdparty cookies are a pervasive tracking technology that allow companies to snoop on your online activity for surveillance and adtargeting purposes The consumer harm caused by these cookies has been welldocumented for years prompting Safari and Firefox to block them since 2020 Google knows thisthat’s why they pledged to phase out thirdparty cookies in 2020 By abandoning this plan Google leaves billions of Chrome users vulnerable to online surveillance

How do thirdparty cookies facilitate online surveillance

Cookies are small packets of information stored in your browser by websites you visit They were built to enable useful functionality like letting a website remember your language preferences or the contents of your shopping cart But for years companies have abused this functionality to track user behavior across the web fueling a vast network of online surveillancenbsp

While firstparty cookies enable useful functionality thirdparty cookies are primarily used for online tracking Thirdparty cookies are set by websites other than the one you’re currently viewing Websites often include code from thirdparty companies to load resources like ads analytics and social media buttons When you visit a website this thirdparty code can create a cookie with a unique identifier for you When you visit another website that loads resources from the same thirdparty company that company receives your unique identifier from the cookie they previously set By recognizing your unique identifier across multiple sites thirdparty companies build a detailed profile of your browsing habitsnbsp

For example if you visit WebMDs “HIV amp AIDS Resource Center” you might expect WebMD to get information about your visit to their page What you probably dont expect and what thirdparty cookies enable is that your visit to WebMD is tracked by dozens of companies youve never heard of At the time of writing visiting WebMD’s “HIV amp AIDS Resource Center” sets 257 thirdparty cookies on your browser The businesses that set those cookies include big tech companies (Google Amazon X Microsoft) and data brokers (Lotame LiveRamp Experian) By setting a cookie on WebMD these companies can link your visit to WebMD to your activity on other websites

How does this online surveillance harm consumers

Thirdparty cookies allow companies to build detailed profiles of your online activities which can be used for targeted advertising or sold to the highest bidder The consequences are farreaching and deeply concerning Your browsing history can reveal sensitive information including your financial status sexual orientation and medical conditions Data brokers collect and sell this information without your knowledge or consent Once your data is for sale anyone can buy it Purchasers include insurance companies hedge funds scammers antiabortion groups stalkers and government agencies such as the military FBI and ICEnbsp

Online surveillance tools built for advertisers are exploited by others For example the NSA used thirdparty cookies set by Google to identify targets for hacking and people attempting to remain anonymous online Likewise a conservative Catholic nonprofit paid data brokers millions to identify priests using gay dating apps and the brokers obtained this information from online advertising systemsnbsp

Targeted ads also hurt us They enable predatory advertisers to target vulnerable groups like payday lenders targeting people in financial trouble They also facilitate discriminatory advertising like landlords targeting housing ads by race

Yet again Google puts profits over privacy

Googles decision to continue allowing thirdparty cookies despite overwhelming evidence of their surveillance harms is a direct consequence of their advertisingdriven business model Google makes most of its money from trackerdriven behaviorallytargeted adsnbsp

If Google wanted Chrome could do much more to protect your privacy Other major browsers like Safari and Firefox provide significantly more protection against online tracking by default Notably Google is the internet’s biggest tracker and most of the websites you visit include Google trackers (including but not limited to thirdparty cookies) As Chrome leaves users vulnerable to tracking Google continues to receive nearly 80 of their revenue from online advertising

Google’s change in plans follows concerns from advertisers and regulators that the loss of thirdparty cookies in Chrome would harm competition in digital advertising Google’s anticompetitive practices in the adtech industry must be addressed but maintaining online surveillance systems is not the answer Instead we should focus on addressing the root of these competition concerns The bipartisan AMERICA Act which proposed breaking up vertically integrated adtech giants like Google offers a more effective approach We don’t need to sacrifice user privacy to foster a competitive digital marketplace

What now

First we call on Google to reverse this harmful decision Continuing to allow one of the most pervasive forms of online tracking especially when other major browsers have blocked it for years is a clear betrayal of user trust Google must prioritize people’s privacy over their advertising revenue and find real solutions to competition concernsnbsp

In the meantime users can take steps to protect themselves from online tracking Installing Privacy Badger can help block thirdparty cookies and other forms of online tracking

We also need robust privacy legislation to ensure that privacy standards aren’t set by advertising companies Companies use various tracking methods like fingerprinting and link redirection to monitor users across the web without thirdparty cookies As long as it remains legal and profitable companies will continue building and selling profiles of your online activities Already Google has developed alternative tracking tools that may be less invasive than thirdparty cookies but still enable harmful surveillance Blocking thirdparty cookies is important but insufficient to address pervasive online tracking Strong privacy legislation in the United States is possible necessary and long overdue A comprehensive data privacy law should protect our browsing history by default and ban behavioral ads which drive excessive data collection

Googles decision to continue allowing thirdparty cookies in Chrome is a major disappointment Browsing the internet shouldnt require submitting to extensive surveillance As Google prioritizes profits over privacy we need legislation that gives you control over your data