Relief for Internet Users as Google announces new timeline for privacy policy

Google has announced a timeline for implementing new privacy policy standards that will limit third – party use of cookies.

In a statement, Justin Schuh, Google’s director of Chrome engineering, said the company and advertisers need to build a “trustworthy and sustainable web together.”

“Users are demanding greater privacy – including transparency, choice and control over how their data is used – and it’s clear the web ecosystem needs to evolve to meet these increasing demands,” he wrote.

While you may be familiar with the term, you may not completely know what a cookie is or what it does.  A “cookie,” also known as a web cookie, represents data packets that are sent to your computer to help a website track your visits and activity.

Companies use this information to find out about individuals’ activities on the internet. Web publishers use them to determine what advertising to target to a particular person.

The new policy known as privacy sandbar will require third party users to go through google to get information about internet users.

The plan to limit third party access to cookies was initially announced in August 2019, with advertisers hoping to have more time before it was implemented.

New research by INFORMS has also explored the real value of the cookie to websites, advertisers, and found that cookies represent higher revenue to online publishers.  According to the study, there is a 52 percent reduction in advertising revenue to publishers when cookies are eliminated through Internet user opt-out protocols. On the other hand, when cookies are present, publishers’ ad pricing doubles.

Cookies have been used for quite a long time but recent large scale data breaches have raised concerns about how much data is out and who is it available to.