Google Chrome Privacy Sandbox open to all: Now websites can tap into your habits directly for ads

Google's Privacy Sandbox is now open for business, the search advertising behemoth said today. Specifically, the web giant's Privacy Sandbox APIs, a set of ad delivery and analysis technologies, now function in the latest version of the Chrome browser. Website developers can thus write code that calls those APIs to deliver and …

[LenG]

Sneaky

I have chorme on my system although I don't actually use it unless I find a particularly picky website which does not support my browser(s) of choice. Hoever, reading the article prompted me to fire it up with a view to updating and looking to see what sort of privacy options it would provide.

Chrome started with a message to say it could not be upgraded but I could reinstall with the latest version. When I said yes a download page popped up with a pre-checked option

"Help make Google Chrome better by automatically sending usage statistics and crash reports to Google. Learn more"

in a font so small I had to almost put my nose on the page to read it.

Chrome is now deleted.

[43300]

Re: Sneaky

Use Brave instead - that's based on the same rendering engine as Chrome but is privacy focusssed. I generally find that if sites don't like Firefox because they want something Chrome-like, then they are mostly fine with Brave.

[doublelayer]

Re: Sneaky

I generally find that if sites don't like Firefox because they want something Chrome-like, then they are mostly fine with Firefox showing a Chrome user agent. This is usually when I stop using that site. The only exceptions that come to mind are things that use the hardware access APIs that Google decided should be in there, and I don't like them anyway (no, I don't think it's cool to program a development board through the browser when I can flash my own image over serial, thanks). There must be others, but fortunately I've not had to see them too much.

[Sora2566]

Re: Sneaky

I believe Firefox now supports a somewhat locked-down version of the Web Serial API, now.

[ludicrous_buffoon]

Re: Sneaky

How the web went from transferring hypertext to this is beyond me. I don't understand the need. Maybe I'm just getting older.

[Czrly]

Re: Sneaky

"Sites" that "don't like Firefox" aren't actually sites at all. We've had Web Standards for decades and Firefox is about as compliant as any other flagship browser.

[david bates]

Re: Sneaky

Try telling that to the NP&I website if you try and use Firefox Mobile. Spoofing the user agent works so it really is a case of "We can't be bothered to test this".

[43300]

Re: Sneaky

Yeah, I know, but arguing (correctly) that all sites should conform to standards doesn't help when the reality is that some of them don't. Chromey browsers have become so ubiquitous that it seems some sites are only really tested on them - it's back to the 'Internet Explorer Recommended (and nothing else works properly)' situation!

[Adrian 4]

Re: Sneaky

I use Brave most of the tinme but it does fail, probably when the website demands a popup. I prefer to just forget about such websites. Coercion is no way to make friends.

[vekkq]

Re: Sneaky

Brave is rather suspect. E.g. for having a built-in cryptocurrency wallet. Would you trust someone who thinks crypto is a good idea?

[karlkarl]

The trick is to use your firewall to block Chrome from accessing the internet entirely ;)

[jake]

It's no trick, but I have so far managed not to install Chrome at all.

Fuck alphagoo, the horse they rode in on, the saddle they sat on, etc. etc.

[Sp1z]

I've gone one stage further and block any inbound or outbound traffic on my router to any of Google, Meta or Tiktok's IP addresses listed in their ASNs.

Yes some websites don't like it, but then I quickly stop using that website :)

[Aleph0]

Some days I feel pretty smug about never having dropped Firefox as my personal browser...

I'd rather the apps on my devices work on my behalf and not for the sake of advertising companies, thankyouverymuch.

[vistisen]

Smae reason I use vivaldi https://vivaldi.com/blog/no-google-vivaldi-users-will-not-get-floced/

[Tron]

Worry less.

Targeted advertising has never been much kop. The simple stuff (other people who bought this also bought these) works well enough, but the 'AI' stuff is bollocks (and definitely not worth paying for). I endlessly get offered things that I have bought (and don't need again) or similar products that I didn't buy for a reason. In some collecting areas it can be rarely useful, but there is no understanding or contextualisation, so 99.9% of the time, it is entirely useless. Weirdly, ebay seems to be unable to cope with pound signs in searches. I also have an ebay search logged for a particular type of stamp, but it delivers the same, completely irrelevant stuff each time: postcards of a mid-20thC politician I've never heard of. There is no match-up in any of the keywords. No idea how it is doing that. Perhaps an example of AI 'hallucinating'.

TL;DR: Ad targeting, outside dictatorships, is benign. Take the tin foil hats off, folks. 'Nothing' is a small price to pay for useful tech. We are getting the best deal of all here. Better than those paying for it.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Worry less.

Yeh dont you just love the millions of young women and girls with low self esteem because of the crap and fake images purpetuated by advertising ?

A lot of arseholes are enabled by advertising to sell their fake or evil products so they can make some money while a lot of foolish and innocent people are hurt.

THe world wont end if there is no advertising especially third party advertising.

[doublelayer]

Re: Worry less.

I think you might have the wrong idea about why we, or at least I, hate targeted advertising. It's not because I'm afraid that the advertising will be too useful. If the ads were more useful, maybe that would be a weak argument in favor of keeping it on, and that it is as useless for me as it is for you means that it's extra pointless. My problem with it is that the data they're collecting is not data I want them to have, and they are not very good about keeping it to themselves. Not only do I have to deal with ad networks collecting and storing it, but with anyone who buys or steals it having copies. I don't know what's in there, and there are ways that both correct and incorrect stuff in that dataset could be harmful. The quality of the resulting advertisements is mostly irrelevant; if they were collecting that stuff and not showing any to me at all, that would still be a problem.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Worry less.

You seem to be missing a few facts. The ad industry grew and got rich long before there was any micro targetting of ads. They did very well out of "targetting" by placing posters on billboards in areas their target demographic were likely to see them or the sort of people that would buy and read a particular newspaper. Similar when radio and TV came along and adverts were "targetted" at the shows likely audience demographic and the type of show being broadcast. Ad agencies were not going bust every week through lack of feedback.

[CowHorseFrog]

Re: Worry less.

So what if it did ?

By that logic kiddie porn should also be legal because abusing kids has always tragically happened before the internet.

[DryBones]

Re: Worry less.

Well, that's some hilarious friendly-fire.

[Gene Cash]

Rabbit nozzles

For some reason, I've started getting copious Amazon recommendations for rabbit nozzles.

I don't have the slightest idea what they are. I hazard a guess at some sort of feeding tubes, but looking at them, I'm at a loss how that would work.

I so love targeted advertising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Rabbit nozzles

You didn't once search for anything using the word "rampant", did you?

Feeding pet bunnies may not be the intended use...

[David 132]

Re: Rabbit nozzles

Either that or it’s some new street drug that all the edgy kids are now using?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Rabbit nozzles

"Feeding pet bunnies may not be the intended use..."

Except, maybe, at the Playboy Mansion. Or so I've been told :-)

[jake]

Re: Rabbit nozzles

They dispense water. It's essentially a check valve that replaces a bottle's cap. Functionally, it's a ball held captive in a peened-over tube. Bunny licks the ball, out comes water. Requires little maintenance other than refilling the bottle once or twice per day.

They make a varietal that plugs into your barn's pressure water supply, but I don't like those. Too much to go wrong.

[MrDamage]

Re: Rabbit nozzles

> They make a varietal that plugs into your barn's pressure water supply, but I don't like those. Too much to go wrong.

That's when you make use of an old toilet cistern and float valve.

[An_Old_Dog]

Re: Rabbit nozzles

Now that you've clicked on a "rabbit nozzle" ad, you'll also start seeing longerie ads.

[jake]

Earth to AlphaGoo:

Fuck off.

When you;re done fucking off, you can fuck off some more.

And then continue fucking off, until you learn what privacy really means, and act upon it.

Until then? Just fuck off.

[hedgie]

Re: Earth to AlphaGoo:

Not only am I a privacy nut, but I'm blocking ads regardless. Until advertisers assume liability for any malware they serve, including massive payouts to those af/infected, that's not going to change even for non-targeted ads. At least, aside from work Gmail accounts and the rare Youtube links friends send, I'm free from the Eye of Googron.

[fromxyzzy]

Re: Earth to AlphaGoo:

If you want to get real specific (beyond ublock origin, etc), check out the SponsorBlock for Youtube extension.

[LenG]

Pi-hole is your friend

Blocks more or less all ad-slingers.

Mind, I still do my best to prevent anyone tracking my likes and dislikes even if the information is useless to them.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: Earth to AlphaGoo:

Jake, my work here is done.

[CowHorseFrog]

THe UN needs to add a new item to the human rights charter and making advertising and tracking in all its forms a crime against humanity.

[CowHorseFrog]

How long before the US and EU come after Google for this on for monopolistic reasons ?

Google sure got super greedy with this, wanting to kill all other advertisers so they would remain.

[Anonymous Coward]

@CowHorseFrog - Let's say, how about...

never ? Does it seem long enough for you ?

[John Brown (no body)]

Like they are currently after MS in the OS arena? Oh, wait...

[ChoHag]

Is it called a privacy sandbox because it's all pretend and you're just playing?

[Doctor Syntax]

As usual: Yes Minister episode 1 gave the explanation "Getting rid of the difficult bit in the title".

[the Jim bloke]

Called a sandbox, because its full of urine, dog turds, and used hypodermic needles.

Obvious, when you think about it.

[Dan 55]

Next, when Google rolls out web attestation in about a year...

... we can drop all this Internet nonsense and call it the Googlenet. Big proprietary US corporation in charge of everything, as was meant to happen in the mid 90s but MS screwed it up.

[RobLang]

Why can't we just be explicit about choices?

I wouldn't mind explicitly checking boxes that gave my advert preferences. It's the under-handed, data-gatheringness that bothers me.

I appreciate that ads give revenue that makes the world go round. Marketing is about finding people who want your product already and doesn't know it exists. That's fine. However, there's no point in showing me ads for puzzles because I bought some for my mum last year for Christmas and the page cookie banner didn't work properly.

Let me tell you explicitly what I want to see and what I don't. Then we can do away with all this sneaky tracking nonsense and I can be shown things I might actually want.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Why can't we just be explicit about choices?

The advertising industry doesn't exist to sell you the things advertisers want to sell, it exists to sell adverting to advertisers.

[s. pam]

The polish came off of Chrome years ago

IMNSHO they've had far too many INsecurity issues and we dumped them years ago and never looked back. Still feel our decision was the right one based on this idiocy!!

[Wellyboot]

>>>"No one would accept all food retailers closing the home baking aisle and forcing everyone to buy their own brand bread. Why would anyone accept Google and Apple’s identical behavior in digital markets?"<<<

Because unless it's being physically shoved into their face, most people don't care about what they can't see.

If all the information being tracked was scrolling across the browser screen* they might start to comprehend.

*You're gonna need a bigger screen!

[trindflo]

information being tracked was scrolling across the browser screen

I recall there was an extension that did that...cool! I see 7 of them now:

gizmodo article on extensions that expose tracking

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: information being tracked was scrolling across the browser screen

I like the comment at the bottom of the Gizmodo article...

"Good advice. Right now, I’m blocking 11 of the 16 domains connected to this very page"

(yes, Gizmodo use Taboola to provide the endless stream of clickbait below the article!)

[Doctor Syntax]

The prompt to update chromium etc - including the sandbox, appeared this morning. Being on a slow connection at the moment I shelved it, then read this so now it's apt remove chromium. Job done.

[bombastic bob]

'erase all history' script

One thing I have done in the past (somewhat necessary if chrome gets used when doing an embedded UI in kiosk mode) is to find out which files in Chrome's hierarchy can be deleted without deleting ALL of the personalized settings, and then DELETE THEM with a script on exit, or before Chrome starts.

That list seems to change a bit with newer versions, though...

If chrome has not yet got one, it needs an "erase history on exit" feature. Firefox has this (or did last I checked).

Chrome is often brain-damaged and even caches style sheets when you are trying to work on them,. Painful.

[43300]

Re: 'erase all history' script

Brave has an option to erase history on exit.

I don't know why anyone outside of a corporate environment where it was mandated would use Chrome or Edge, particularly on a personal machine. If you want a Chromium-based browser then Brave would be my first choice, Vivaldi second. Otherwise, use Firefox.

[Anonymous Coward]

@bombastic bob - Re: 'erase all history' script

You do realize erasing history on exit is too late, don't you ? How long it takes for the information once gathered to be diced and spread across several databases ? It takes less than it would take for you to say ouch!

[captain veg]

the problem is...

Using a web browser supplied by an advertising business. It's like buying a car from Exxon and being surprised by the stupidly high fuel consumption.

-A.

[trindflo]

like buying a car from Exxon

Or like buying a printer from...shoot, just about anyone now:

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/26/971912613/how-printer-companies-are-locking-people-into-loyalty

[Derezed]

Another win for Brexit

“In the EU, as required by law, the notification is an invitation to opt-in to interest-based ads via Topics.”

Another Brexit dividend…why would I want the hassle of opting IN to something which Google knows I’ll love.

FUCK privacy.

[Roland6]

Re: Another win for Brexit

>” Controversially, in the US, where lack of coherent privacy rules suit ad companies just fine, the popup merely informs the user that these APIs are now present and active in the browser but requires visiting Chrome's Settings page to actually manage them – you have to opt-out”

Chrome has the same behaviour in he UK (and probably other non-EU places), but for reasons unknown this is no “controversial”…..

US bias showing perhaps?

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Another win for Brexit

Chrome has the same behaviour in he UK (and probably other non-EU places), but for reasons unknown this is no “controversial”…..

If that's the case, then perhaps that should have been noted in the article since, AFAIK, the laws in the UK have not yet diverged from out previous EU implementations of privacy so any forced opt-in is still illegal.

[david bates]

Re: Another win for Brexit

Jesus Christ its been six years and we can implement any rules we like. If you don't like Brexit perhaps you should have worked a bit harder to prevent it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Another win for Brexit

remember the previous 'browser choice' mandated by the EU...

[the Jim bloke]

Ads offered 'based on your browsing history'

.. so all the shit I had to fight through to find what I was looking for - is is now being presented to me again

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh man...

"selected by Chrome from your browsing history"

When I mention just that line to people, I'm going to be having long conversations about browsers and "which one is best" with customers. Exciting times!

I'm going to flip so many people to Firefox.

[Anonymous Coward]

I got this...

"No one would accept all food retailers closing the home baking aisle and forcing everyone to buy their own brand bread. Why would anyone accept Google and Apple’s identical behavior in digital markets?".

Because the analogy works better when you actually frame it from the perspective of the consumer...so substitute "home baking" for "dirty needle" and "bread" to "terminal illness".

Third party cookies, privacy sandbox...from the consumer perspective

Sympathising with businesses that will be screwed by this change is like sympathising with a drug dealer when another drug dealer turns up at takes his turf. It makes no difference to me, because there is still a drug dealer...the problem still exists.

[Anonymous Coward]

"selected by Chrome from your browsing history"

Who, in 2023, still has browsing history enabled?

It's literally the first thing I disable in any web browser..along with automatically clearing the cache on exit.

Not one machine in my house has a browsing history and nobody has noticed that I've switched it off everywhere.

[Chris 15]

Odd tone here

I find it interesting that El Reg is ignoring the lack of actual privacy in this" 'Privacy' Sandbox" falsely titled Personal Data Grab update

Rather than just being able to disable third party tracking cookies like in any browser that doesn't treat you, the user, as the product for their advertiser customers, Google decide to make it so that only they are able to sell you the the highest bidder.

The alternative to not being tracked across the web via third party tracking cookies is NOT to be tracked across the web by Google instead.

[An_Old_Dog]

"Google Privacy Sandbox"

Right up there along with:

"War Is Peace.

Freedom Is Slavery.

Ignorance Is Strength."

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Re: "Google Privacy Sandbox"

"War Is Peace."

Bah. You beat me to it.

One more:

Military intelligence

[the Jim bloke]

Re: "Google Privacy Sandbox"

bit tired of "Military Intelligence", its a smart arse soundbyte from before soundbytes were a thing.

If you want something a bit more contemporary,

how about..

Business ethics,

or

Political integrity..

[jmch]

So, let me get this straight....

...Instead of having any advertiser track you whichever way they want through cookies, the benevolent browser maker Google will act on your behalf as a trusted third-party intermediary with advertisers. Thus the evil Alphabet advertising empire will be thwarted in it's attempts to get it's hands on every bit of data that you own, and will be rendered unable to take a cut on every single advertising transaction on the Internet.

<sarc>Hurrah!!! <\sarc>

[mpi]

So let me get this straight...

...the "solution" to the problem of corporations invading our privacy by tricking our browsers into becoming tracking agents that allow them to profile us, is to ... build profiling functionality directly into the browser, accessible to 3rd parties? And the justification for this is that somehow this is much more private?

GENIUS!

Now if you'll all excuse me, I am going to have to write several emails now, telling everyone I ever knew how to install Brave.

And to any and all webhosts who even think about making access to this API a requirement for fetching their content: It is less of a hassle for me to lose access to whatever info you provide, than it is a hassle for you to lose me as audience and customer. That is all.

[PB90210]

Susie Dent...

the latest episode of Something Rhymes With Purple ('Auld Reekie' ep) has a bit about semantic inversion, where words flip their meaning.

Susie talks about 'sick', 'wicked' and 'cool'... in Google's case it seems to be 'privacy'

[anthonyhegedus]

Cookie notifications

The inconvenience of these cookies and being followed by advertisers is to me at least not as great as the inconvenience of having stupid cookie warning notifications on every site I visit, even if I've said Yes to them before.

Please please please... is this new google thing going to mean the end of cookie notification popups?

[eternal cynic]

ClickIt-BANG !!!

And the Chrome is gone