Vivaldi disables Google Topics in browser

Browser Vivaldi will not support Google Topics, the search giant’s alternative to tracking via cookies. It comes standard in Chromium, the open source version of Google Chrome on which Vivaldi is based.

Vivaldi disables Topics in two ways, writes the company. The local creation of a user profile under the Topics API is disabled and Vivaldi will also retrieve the necessary code from the browser. Moreover, when a site requests that the user has Topics enabled, Vivaldi always returns that it is disabled.

Vivaldi sees Topics as “a deceptive attempt by Google to appear privacy-focused while introducing new tools to spy on its users.” “We believe it is fundamentally wrong to have tracking and profiling baked into a browser. Even if it can be turned off and even if it is turned off by default, but you can turn it on on demand. The largest tech companies in the world generate the largest share of their advertising revenues and when those advertisements are driven by your data and interactions with their services, the balance is completely off.”

Google introduced Topics early last year. With the Topics API Advertisers can tailor advertisements to user groups based on last week’s interests, which must therefore match what users would like to see. For example, a form of targeted advertising should remain possible without tracking cookies, Google says.

To further safeguard the privacy of users, Google also sends a random topic with the relevant topics for a user. This should prevent fingerprinting.