W3C rejects Google's cookie plans for Chrome
'The proposed API appears to maintain the status quo of inappropriate surveillance on the web', says W3C's Technical Architecture Group
A division of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has rejected Google's Topics API proposal which the search giant presented last year, claiming that it would help replace intrusive third-party tracking cookies in Chrome.
Amy Guy of the W3C's Technical Architecture Group (TAG) wrote in a Github post that while Google claims Topics API will shield web users from "unwanted tracking and profiling", TAG's initial assessment is that it would not be able to accomplish the stated objectives.
"The proposed API appears to maintain the status quo of inappropriate surveillance on the web, and we do not want to see it proceed further," Amy Guy noted.
A Google representative said that although the company valued TAG's suggestions, it disagreed with the claim that Topics upholds the status quo.
"Google is committed to Topics, as it is a significant privacy improvement over third-party cookies, and we're moving forward," the spokesperson added.
TAG's assessment is undoubtedly a major setback for Google, which has been working hard since 2020 to develop cookie-less proposals as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative.
The company says it intends to phase out third-party cookies from Chrome by 2024.
Cookies are small pieces of text sent to a browser by the website that users visit. Advertisers use third-party cookies to gather user information from browsers, which they use to improve the targetting and effectiveness of their campaigns.
Critics have long raised concerns about the tracking of users by businesses and malicious actors via cookies.
Third-party cookie blocking features have already been added by default to many browsers, including Firefox, Brave, Vivaldi and Safari.
Google has its own plan to eliminate third-party trackers in Chrome.
In 2019, the company announced Privacy Sandbox initiative, stating that it would make web surfing more private, without killing ad tech firms' business model.
As part of the scheme, Google last year unveiled Topics API, which it said would allow websites to target people with ads based on their interests but without gathering large amounts of data about them.
For the system to work, Google says Chrome browser will determine which topics best represent a user's internet activity in a particular week, such as 'fitness', 'sports' or 'travel & transportation'. Chrome then will store the information from the past three weeks, and delete older data.
The entire process will take place on the user's device, without involving any external servers, including Google servers.
"When you visit a participating site, Topics picks just three topics, one topic from each of the past three weeks, to share with the site and its advertising partners," Google said last year.
However, W3C's TAG group is not satisfied with the Topics API proposal and its privacy features.
According to Amy Guy, Topics API does not provide users adequate control over the topics that are shared from their browsers, and third parties may be able to stitch together data from Topics with other user data to create profiles on individuals.
Guy also expressed worry that topics may be exploited to customise content in a discriminatory way, including deciding which advertisements to display based on inference of private or protected attributes, such a person's race.
Guy also pointed out that developers at Mozilla and WebKit, who work on the Firefox and Safari browsers, respectively, had not endorsed the Topics API idea.
Despite the W3C's criticism, Google may still choose to go its own way since it is not obligated to adhere to web standards and because the development of an alternative might take years.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority is also currently working with Google on the company's plan to remove third-party cookies and other tracking functionalities from its Chrome browser.