On 3 March 2021, Google has announced that the company will soon stop pushing ads based on a user’s browsing history which will be a step in the right direction as consumers have been demanding more security and privacy online. The announcement was made on the company’s official blog and Google’s Director of Product Management, Ads Privacy and Trust, David Temkin, explained,
“If digital advertising doesn’t evolve to address the growing concerns people have about their privacy and how their personal identity is being used, we risk the future of the free and open web. People shouldn’t have to accept being tracked across the web in order to get the benefits of relevant advertising.”
The company has been pushing what is called the privacy sandbox which is designed to only let publishers target users based on their interest while respecting their privacy. The company has explained that through breakthroughs in AI like “federated learning”, Google’s systems are using raw data on the users’ devices instead of transferring data to the cloud. This means that the company will not actually see the information but will still be able to learn from it.
Also read: No Need To Reach For Your Phone, WhatsApp Introduces Voice & Video Calls On Its Desktop App!