In the long run Google probably does not care that much. They’ve been busy moving the tracking into the browser itself with the Protected Audience API.
Technically they don’t track you personally and nobody has a database of your preferences. The browser does and just runs auctions to serve you ads.
This kind of tech renders the DMA, GDPR and cookie banners moot, while keeping the money printing machine that is Google Ad business running.
That’s the thing. No tracking occurs. And no personal data is collected or sent anywhere. It stays in your browser. In a way it’s like your browser history. The browser knows your interests and runs auctions for advertisers. And as per GDPR you can review it, correct it and opt out at any time. It’s basically the same horrible adware thing but without tracking and fully compliant with all EU laws.
At some point Google will turn off 3rd party cookies (a decade after Safari) and adtech will have no choice but to adopt their stuff. By end of 2024 if all goes according to plan.
> At some point Google will turn off 3rd party cookies (a decade after Safari) and adtech will have no choice but to adopt their stuff. By end of 2024 if all goes according to plan.
Sounds like an antitrust crackdown waiting to happen (both on the adtech side and the browser side)
It’s very rare that I just want an answer. If I do I can usually ask the Google assistant.
But Google has indeed worked hard to become an answering engine at which point it can and is getting disrupted by a whole host of alternatives such as ChatGPT, voice commands, etc.
Google will punish you hard if you don't share information with it. Soon you will realize that it will constantly bother you because it cannot trust you (because it does not have your information). Say if you let it track you all the time, and if you happen to forget your password, you may still be able to get the access to your email account back. I disabled all tracking, and I have not been able to access my 10+ year old email account. If I knew this, I would be happy to ask Google to track me 24/7.
Yes, that was stupid that I was using Gmail as my primary for such a long time. Now I switched to iCloud, much better, with very useful services, you can talk to a person when bad things happen. Google does not have any customer service for their services. The only Google service I am using now is Google Maps and YouTube. Probably I will switch to Apple Maps soon.
That's exactly why I switched email providers. I want a reliable login, password and 2FA scheme where if I have all 3, I'm in. Google doesn't have that.
I would choose a service where there is a human can you talk to when you need help. Customer support, user centric system. I have my phone number registered as 2FA, apparently it is not enough.
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 91.7 ms ] threadTechnically they don’t track you personally and nobody has a database of your preferences. The browser does and just runs auctions to serve you ads.
This kind of tech renders the DMA, GDPR and cookie banners moot, while keeping the money printing machine that is Google Ad business running.
They absolutely do. They're merely not necessarily labelled as your preferences.
The law does not care about technicallities. GDPR, for example, doesn't specify a medium in which the personal data must be collected.
At some point Google will turn off 3rd party cookies (a decade after Safari) and adtech will have no choice but to adopt their stuff. By end of 2024 if all goes according to plan.
"Ads 2.0 aren't supported in Firefox, please use Chrome to view them" would be one hell of a selling point :)
Sounds like an antitrust crackdown waiting to happen (both on the adtech side and the browser side)
Google is trying to be an answer engine.
No, I do want search!
It’s very rare that I just want an answer. If I do I can usually ask the Google assistant.
But Google has indeed worked hard to become an answering engine at which point it can and is getting disrupted by a whole host of alternatives such as ChatGPT, voice commands, etc.
The more "solid"/objective the information I'm seeking, the more likely I am to "google it."
Thanks for your perspective.
I'm from the EU.
Taxation - 40% of monthly payslip goes... somewhere
Inflation - cumulative 20% in Eurozone for the last 4 years
War - anytime now
Meantime EU - "let's talk about fine grained privacy settings and preferences"