On Thursday, Austrian advocacy group NOYB accused Google of tracking Chrome users, an issue already under EU antitrust investigators’ notice
To safeguard consumer privacy, the multinational technology corporation is discontinuing the utilization of third-party cookies, which advertisers employ to monitor consumers.
The Privacy Sandbox is a collection of tools introduced to prevent covert monitoring techniques and restrict data sharing with third parties. This allows developers and publishers to measure ads without tracking individual users.
Chrome users are prompted to to prevent trackingturn the ad privacy feature on or off.
According to NOYB (none of your business), the feature enables Google to monitor users within the browser, and the company should obtain users’ consent as part of the European Union’s privacy requirements.
“People were deceived into consenting to Google’s first-party ad tracking, despite believing they were consenting to a privacy feature.”
To be legally valid, consent must be informed, transparent, and equitable. Max Schrems, the founder of NOYB, stated that Google has implemented the exact opposite approach.
On Thursday, the Austrian data protection authority received a complaint from the group.
NOYB has submitted numerous complaints to the European Union and national privacy watchdogs regarding alleged privacy violations by major technology companies.