If a report from The Wall Street Journal is to be believed, Google is going to implement a built-in tracking blocker in Chrome browser that will block tracker cookies from all third parties, but exempt Google’s own scripts and cookies.
Sources familiar with the matter told WSJ that Google will soon roll out a control dashboard in Chrome to block tracking cookies. But the worst part is that Google’s own tracking scripts would remain unaffected — giving Google a huge and unfair advantage over its advertising rivals.
This step by Google could even expose the company to more anti-trust lawsuits. Reportedly, this feature has been discussed for the past six years at least. In fact, Google has been working on a “browser identifier” — which can link all online activities to a user.
This browser identifier that advertisers can see could easily be turned on or off by users. However, Google had previously dropped the project “because it required changing millions of lines of codes and potentially renegotiating thousands of outside agreements.”
But now it seems that the search giant has changed its mind and could even go ahead with its initial plans if the report is accurate. Especially after the Facebook Cambridge Analytica incident took place, this project started accelerating.
WSJ’s sources expect the company to make announcements related to the new cookie tracking controls in the Google I/O, which starts tonight.
So, we will have to wait until then to find out if Google is actually planning to implement such tracker cookie controls.
