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Google has begun enforcing new tracking rules across connected devices, such as smartphones, consoles, and smart TVs, as BBC reports. The tech giant once called the fingerprint tracking technique “wrong” in 2019, but has since reintroduced it.
Google has commented that other companies broadly use the data, and it started using it on February 16, 2024. However, that may not sound any better since fingerprinting gathers user data about devices’ hardware and software, which can then uniquely identify a specific device or user.
“Privacy campaigners have called Google’s new rules on tracking people online ‘a blatant disregard for user privacy,” BBC News reported this weekend, citing Mozilla’s Martin Thomson warning that “Google has given itself – and the advertising industry it dominates – permission to use a form of tracking that people can’t do much to stop.”
Google also told BBC News that the “privacy-enhancing technologies offer new ways for our partners to succeed on emerging platforms… without compromising on user privacy.” Google first announced the feature in December and caused little backlash, but it is now facing significant pushback. Additionally, the tech giant stated that it was hard to target ads to users when they used conventional data collection on devices such as consoles and TVs because users controlled it with cookie consent.
What is fingerprinting? It is a tracking technique that gathers information about your browser and device to create a profile about you. The collected data is used to target specific ads, and this data allows advertisers to tailor ads based on factors like screen size and language settings. Furthermore, since that information is combined with other data such as battery level, time zone, browser type, and other points, it’s easier to work out who is using the web service.
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