Google has announced plans to stop supporting tools designed to follow Internet users across the web in order to target them with specific advertising.
Such tools are known as cookies-small data files that are stored on an Internet user's computer as they browse (浏览) different websites. This data can be read by web servers to identify web browsing behaviors of the user. Cookies make it possible for users to avoid having to repeatedly enter their user names and passwords to get access to websites they use often. But the use of cookies raises major privacy concerns, with critics saying a user's browsing history should not be recorded just to target them with ads.
Google announced in 2020 it had decided "to remove support for third-party cookies" from its Chrome browser. In another online announcement, Google repeated this promise, saying it will not build new tools to replace current cookie technology.
In explaining its decision, Google referred to a Pew Research study that found 72 percent of Americans feel that almost all of what they do online is tracked by advertisers. Google's decision to remove third-party cookies also followed increasing efforts to protect privacy in Europe and the United States. Google said the current Internet advertising model needs to change to answer "the growing concerns people have about their privacy and how their personal identity is being used."
In January, however, Google's plan was questioned by British competition regulators. The country's Competition and Markets Authority announced it had launched an investigation into whether the changes would give Google an unfair advantage over competitors in Internet advertising. The agency said it received objections to the plan from Marketers for an Open Web, a league of technology and publishing companies. The group accuses Google of "abusing its dominant position" by attempting to create a new advertising model.
In its latest statement, Google said, "We will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products."
