British market watchdog begins investigation into Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative
British authorities will investigate Google’s plan to block third-party cookies. The trade watchdog in the country will check whether Google does not unjustly receive a lot of advertising income as a result. The investigation comes after complaints from the advertising industry.
The study is conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority or CMA in the United Kingdom. Which announced the research Friday. The CMA specifically looks at a new program from Google called Privacy Sandbox. Google announced this in 2019.
Privacy Sandbox consists of various components, such as an API that can measure conversion. Google says the goal of that program is to “create a secure personalization environment that protects user privacy.” As a result, Google plans to remove all support for third-party cookies from Chrome and Chromium software by 2022.
The British CMA is now investigating whether this will lead to even more advertising spending that will be made directly to Google. The body previously conducted a preliminary investigation and concluded that there were potential risks to Google’s plan. For example, publishers could find it more difficult to make a profit and Google could gain a dominant position in the advertising market.
The regulator has previously spoken with, among others, the privacy watchdog in the UK to see how companies such as Google can remove privacy concerns without disrupting the market. We also spoke with Google. Google has not yet finalized plans for Privacy Sandbox, and the CMA sees the current investigation as a continuation of those talks with the tech giant. “The current research should provide a framework for continuing this work and potentially build a legal basis for a possible solution.”
The watchdog is conducting the investigation in particular after complaints from the interest group Marketers for an Open Web. That is a group of newspaper publishers who are afraid that Google is using Privacy Sandbox to increase its power.
Google confirms opposite Engadget that it is cooperating with the CMA for the investigation. “The industry needs to make major changes to the way it advertises digitally if it wants to make the web more private while supporting the free and open internet,” the company says.