What You Need To Know About Google’s Privacy Updates

Ever since the Cambridge Analytica Scandal user privacy has been a high priority for companies and individuals alike. People are thinking a lot more about where the data they give so freely is going. Someone can easily hand out their email, birthday, credit card number, and location when shopping online, interacting on social media, or even just performing a general search. This information is valuable, and users want to make sure that their data is safe and isn’t being taken advantage of. Google is starting to roll out more features that focus on protecting user privacy. The biggest one? Phasing out third-party cookies.

Cookies are bits of code that track information as a user interacts with a website. The information the cookies gather is then used by companies to re-target users with relevant advertising in order to achieve higher conversions. By phasing out third-party cookies, Google will be limiting the number of groups collecting user information on Chrome. Eventually Google will be the only group storing user data, allowing them to prioritize privacy and keep information safe. Companies looking to monitor user activity on their sites will use Google Analytics and other Google-based platforms moving forward.

User privacy is extremely important and we think it’s great that Google is working to keep user information safe. What will be interesting to see is what happens next. If Google is the only entity with access to user data, it holds a lot of power without a system of checks and balances. While one wants to hope for the best and assume they won’t exploit this position, it’s hard to predict what might happen behind closed doors. This article from SEJ does a great job going into more detail about the control Google has over paid search as well as user data.