Britain’s competition regulator said on Friday it had secured commitments from Alphabet’s Google to improve on changes to cookies that track users in its browsers, including the giant’s. American technology extends the length of any commitment to six years.
Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been investigated By Google intends to cut support for some cookies in Chrome browser as it fears the move could hamper competition in digital advertising.
Google proposed making changes to its plan, known as a “privacy sandbox,” in June, including allowing the CMA to act as a custodian.
Google says the commitments, if accepted, will apply globally.
The CMA says Google has made new commitments to address some of the remaining concerns, including making commitments around reducing access to IP addresses and clarifying internal limits on data. that Google can use.
“We’ve always been clear that Google’s efforts to protect user privacy cannot come at the expense of reduced competition,” said CMA CEO Andrea Cocelli.
He added: “If accepted, the commitments we have from Google will become legally binding, promote competition in the digital market, help protect the ability of developers to raise money. publish online through advertising and protect user privacy.”
Google said in a Blog it is “defined to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox is developed in a way that works for the entire ecosystem”.
The CMA said it would consult on the new commitments until December 17.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
