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Google faces competition probe over block on adverts that use people’s browsing history
Britain s competition watchdog opened a formal investigation into Google’s cookie move in January
5 March 2021 • 1:22pm
Google faces a deepening investigation over its decision to block adverts that use people’s browsing history after opponents of the move brought the case to Britain’s competition watchdog.
Marketers for an Open Web, a group of news publishers and advertising companies, said it would write to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over Google’s move to limit how advertisers can track users.
On Wednesday, Google said it would no longer support advertising technology that relies on tracking people across different websites. The move sent ripples across the industry since Google’s advertising technology is used by millions of websites.
Europe’s biggest publishers warned on Friday against a major change to Google’s ad technology which they say will only strengthen the company’s dominance of the online advertising business.
Google pledged on Wednesday that it would steer clear of tracking individual online activity when it begins implementing a new system for targeted ads without the use of so-called cookies.
Google’s Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, will this month begin testing an alternative to the tracking practice that it believes could improve online privacy while still enabling advertisers to serve up tailored messages.
But in a statement, European publishers said the new system would create a “black box” that would keep crucial market information away from all players in the digital publishing world except for Google.
News organizations aren’t getting their share of the revenue their content helps generate. And a healthy democracy depends on healthy journalism. The Australian government has developed an innovative proposal that would require tech gatekeepers like Facebook and Google to share search revenue with local independent news organizations. Their approach is a potential model for other countries, too.
Google threatened to pull its search service out of Australia. Microsoft has endorsed the Australian proposal and committed that its Bing search service would remain in the country. Microsoft is also prepared to share revenue with news organizations under the rules that Google and Facebook are rejecting.
Microsoft has leaned on the side of the press in an escalating debate over whether tech giants should be forced to pay news organisations for content.
The PC maker is backing an Australia-style system alongside Europe’s press publishers, in a bid to ensure they are fairly remunerated.
It follows Facebook’s decision to ban news from being shared on its platform in Australia last week, over a proposed law that would compel internet firms to pay news organisations.
The social network’s response has led to concern globally, including from the UK’s Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, who is expected to meet Facebook executives to discuss the matter this week.