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Google's Chrome Browser Analyzing Your Browsing History with so-called "Privacy Sandbox" Feature

For nearly two years now, Google has been gradually rolling out a feature to all Chrome users that analyzes their browsing history within the browser itself. This feature aims to replace third-party cookies and individual tracking by categorizing you into an interest category and sharing that category with advertisers. It’s like having a function in your credit card account that evaluates your activities to pass on your spending habits to the advertising industry, so they can send you tailored ads. Ironically, it’s called “Privacy Sandbox”. To check if this is enabled in your Chrome or Chromium browser, simply enter chrome://settings/adPrivacy into the address bar (yes, the configuration page is called “Ad Privacy”). However, I wouldn’t even want to have this built into my browser, no matter if activated or not. If you’re not a fan of this, you might want to consider switching to Firefox.

bedrooms ,

I want my browser just to render websites, but it's so difficult these days.

Overzeetop ,

I’m about 99% sure that this is exactly what credit card companies do.

batcheck ,

There’s another comment here about banks scrapping your history. Guess I’ll ask because now I’m curious. What’s a realistic way to get around this type of thing with banks and credit cards short of using cash? I hate cash :(

Onihikage ,
@Onihikage@beehaw.org avatar

Probably a local credit union, provided it’s FDIC insured and has decent terms of membership. Most credit unions aren’t in the business of spying on the people that own them, their purpose is just to manage their clients’ money and facilitate spending.

batcheck ,

Okay thank you. I’ll do my homework and find a local credit union.

jarfil ,

None.

Even if your bank doesn’t do it, the credit card processor will. They will be very careful to “anonymize” the data up to a legally plausible deniability level, just like Google does, before selling it, but that’s about it. Even if you use multiple banks with multiple credit cards with different card processors, someone purchasing enough of the “anonymized” data would be able to correlate some of it.

If you don’t want (almost) any data to be scraped, it’s either cash or Monero.

However… if you have no credit history, don’t expect to get any loans, so you might want to build a history of being a reliable fool good client.

Hirom ,

That’s just one out of many chrome settings to keep track of. It’s just easier to change browser and pick one that provide decent privacy by default. See Firefox, Brave, Tor Browser.

brie ,

There’s a similar “feature” in Android that replaced the old Android ad ID. Android rolling out new Ad privacy settings

0x2d ,

my pixel is so much nicer to use now that i put calyx os

aubeynarf ,

FYI, banks do run exactly this type of analysis inside their own system to get around not being able to share your account activity.

EmergMemeHologram ,

Honestly this is better than the old suit, but I still don’t want it.

What I would like: this is a webpage about cars, maybe the ads should be relevant to the content, instead of images of disgusting toenails that say “your doctor will eat your baby if you don’t read this”

thejml ,

100%. And If I’m watching a YouTube video on computers and technology, I don’t need ads for tampons and car insurance.

esaru OP ,

I’d expect that the advertisement is relevant to the content of the page. But I don’t know, as I haven’t seen a single bit of advertisement for the last 15 years.

admin ,
@admin@beehaw.org avatar

I haven’t seen a single bit of advertisement for the last 15 years.

Same…weird how most people don’t know about ad blocking strategies.

moody ,

People don’t realize how bad things are until they experience them differently.

Eggyhead ,
@Eggyhead@kbin.social avatar

I honestly wonder if the advertising industry is just a house of cards, with everyone so far up their own asses that they couldn’t possibly realize how much energy, resources, and dignity is just getting wasted.

I can’t help but feel sorry for whoever thought their “targeted advertising” worked when I just accidentally picked up my tablet and clumsily landed a finger on a banner, or let an entire video ad play because I was preoccupied and not physically able to skip it. The only ads I genuinely pay attention to are the promotional newsletters I actually sign up for out of legitimate interest from those sites, not out of pride or anything, it’s just the only instance where actually find myself interested in what’s being advertised. Everything else out there in the “targeted” web is just white noise to me, and people think it’s a gold mine.

dgriffith ,

I buy a washing machine after a 20 minute search and going to a click and collect website to place an order with a local big brand store.

For the next 6 months:

“HEY CHECK OUT THESE WASHING MACHINES LOOK AT THESE REVIEWS WASHING MACHINES ON SPECIAL CLIIIICK MEEEEEE”

jarfil ,

maybe the ads should be relevant to the content

Back in the old days, that used to be how it worked… but soon ad networks learned that showing ads “relevant to the user” had better click-through rates than showing ads “relevant to the content”, with the content becoming only a data point to classify the user for the best ads that might sway them.

Soon after, advertisers caught on the trend, started blindly paying for ads targeted at user profiles, then ad networks stopped showing stats about whether content-targeted or user-targeted ads were getting better conversion rates, and everyone has been coasting on blind faith in “the algorithm” ever since.

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