Google says it is actively working on plans to revamp Chrome’s user tracking technology to improve privacy, even as regulators and officials face challenges.
The firm provided an update Monday on its work to stop so-called third-party cookies from its Chrome browser, that are used by advertisers or partners of a website and can be used to track the internet browsing practices of a user.
In an announcement that shook up the online advertising industry, third-party cookies were a long-standing source of privacy concerns, and Google said a year ago that it would do away with them.
The changes will impact Chrome, the leading web browser in the world, as well as other Google Chromium technology-based browsers, such as Microsoft’s Edge. By default, rival browsers Safari and Mozilla Firefox have already deleted cookies from third parties, but Google is taking a more passive approach.
In a blog post, Chetna Bindra, Google’s group product manager for user trust and privacy, aimed to ease fears about the project, and said the proposals will “help publishers and marketers succeed while also guarding people’s privacy as they move across the web.”
Google said that new data on one proposed technology was released, which eliminates “individual identifiers” and groups users into big demographic flocks instead.
The technique tries to hide individual users in the online crowd and keeps the web history of an individual on the browser of a device private. Results of tests have shown that it can be an effective substitute for third-party cookies, and advertising agencies can expect to see “at least 95 percent of the conversions per dollar spent when compared to cookie-based advertising,” Bindra said.
Conversions are activities that users take when they see an ad, such as clicking or watching a video to make a purchase. In the coming months, advertisers will be able to test out the scheme for themselves.
Open Web Marketers, U.K. Google’s official statement did nothing to ease concerns expressed by the ad industry and regulators and queried whether the company’s data showed what it claimed, said the industry lobbying group.
Google’s strategy has drawn scrutiny from Britain’s competition watchdog, that this month opened an inquiry into whether it could diminish online ad rivalry and consolidate Google’s leading position in the digital advertising industry.
U.S. officials are also challenging the conduct of Google. Last month, a group of states filed a lawsuit against the company accusing it of “anti-competitive conduct” in the digital advertising sector.
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