Google has withdrawn its proposal for an alternative ad targeting system to third-party cookies, after criticism from some industry participants. The company said its new proposal is called Topics, and will allow advertisers to target users on its Chrome web browser based on subjects browsed by the end-user.
As part of its 'Privacy Sandbox' project, Google company has been working for several years on new forms of ad targeting to replace third-party cookies. The latter have come under increased scrutiny by regulators and end-users, as they allow advertisers access to extensive data on an individual's browsing activity. Google aims to phase out the controversial cookies from 2023 - a date already pushed back following industry concerns about the after-effects on the digital ads market.
Topics is billed as 'interest-based advertising'. Google said it developed the new proposal following "widespread community feedback" on its earlier FLoC trials, and Topics replaces the FLoC plan.
Topics determines a user's interests based on browsing in the past week, grouping this into subjects such as 'fitness' or 'travel and transport'. Topics are selected entirely on-device, without involving any external servers, including Google servers, the company said. The topics are kept for only three weeks and then deleted.
When a Chrome user visits a participating site, Topics picks three topics, one topic from each of the past three weeks, to share with the site and its advertising partners. Chrome users will be able to see the topics, remove any they don’t like or disable the feature completely.
Google claims that Chrome users will have more insight and control, as the system is browser-based, rather than the various trackers placed by third-party sites to target specific internet users. Furthermore, topics are "thoughtfully curated" to exclude sensitive categories, such as gender or race, the company said.
Topics will be opened up for a trial by Chrome users and advertisers "soon", Google said, and the company pledged to incorporate feedback from the trial before launching the system. It also takes account of the commitments the company made to the UK competition regulator over the changes to its advertising systems.
