Big Brother Goes On A Diet
Obligatory cookie pun.
As the internet is increasingly integrated into our lives, our privacy has been diminishing. Invasive marketing tactics are in part to blame, and it tarnishes our reputation. Back when the internet was the Wild West, various questionable practices went unchecked, especially because the average person that’s not versed in coding might feel powerless against them.
Now, businesses have caught on and have made it commonplace to weaponize cookies against our privacy, mining extremely valuable information from us for free.
It can’t be good for our mental health to feel like we’re always being watched.
Now Those Mega-Corporations Are Protecting Us?
Since 2018, Apple has been making strides towards increasing users’ privacy levels and transparency in how apps use our data. That’s a major stride in the right direction. Perhaps they heard our concerns and accommodated them as competitive edge over Samsung? Who knows. At least they’re listening to us, not just listening in. Now we can hide our IP address to curb spying? I never thought I’d see the day.
It’s Google’s turn to protect our privacy rights. While we have been notified upon entry to a website of cookies, we have an option to apply only necessary ones. However, In 2024, Google will remove third party cookies from its web browser, Google Chrome. The browser has a 65.52% market share and is the most used browser, so this is a major blow for marketers. An even stricter Safari comes in second.
What’s in it for Google?
One thing I learned from studying marketing is that businesses never do anything simply out of the goodness of their hearts. There’s always a financial motive behind it. Google will now be substituting cookies with “Topics.” Which in sum, means that Google will be suggesting advertisements to you based on your search history and the topics you inquire about. This of course, further places Google in the position of power over companies and what we view. It might take advertisement bids to the next level in order to narrow down which ads actually make it to the customer based on their interests.
Oh, so that’s what’s in it for them.
Are Non-Predatory Practices Possible?
Afterall, this is supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. They get our info, and we get great suggestions for the next thing we want to buy! That sounds like a double-win on one end. Our browsing gets studied so that marketers and businesses have a better idea of who’s buying their products, and where to advertise based on that. Targeted marketing is way more effective (and cost effective) than the “spray and pray” method.
However, the amount of extremely detailed and intimate information that is available about each internet user doesn’t match the compensation we receive for it. Imagine how much it would cost to gather this information traditionally? It’s a valuable resource sold cheaply. I don’t think that Google removing cookies completely solves our privacy problem, although maybe Apple is a bit further in the right direction.
