ICO Puts Foot Down on Google's Planned Fingerprinting Change
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Google has announced plans to allow its business customers to begin "fingerprinting" users next year, and the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) isn't happy about it.
Fingerprinting involves building a user profile using information about a device's software and hardware, rather than the use of something like cookies, for advertisement targeting. Despite publicly claiming in 2019 that fingerprinting "subverts user choice and is wrong," Google has apparently decided it's not that big of a deal if third parties are doing it using Google's own services.
While not mentioning fingerprinting by name in a statement or overview of planned Ad Platform changes for February 16, 2025, Google did state that it would allow partners to use "data signals" including IP addresses, "web beacons ... or other identifiers" to build device profiles for better serving ads.
"In the past decade, the way people engage with the internet changed dramatically," Google said to justify the move. The Chocolate Factory cited connected TVs as one device type that needs to serve ads that can't collect user data in the traditional manner.
The ICO doesn't want UK businesses to think they'll be off the hook for relying on fingerprinting, however. ICO executive director of regulatory risk, Stephen Almond, said his office will continue to hold businesses accountable because fingerprinting isn't transparent enough to meet UK privacy standards, and is likely to reduce people's choice over how their data is collected and used.
"We think this change is irresponsible," Almond said. "Businesses do not have free rein to use fingerprinting as they please. Like all advertising technology, it must be lawfully and transparently deployed - and if it is not, the ICO will act."
Almond said the ICO is engaging with Google "on this u-turn in its position." Google confirmed to The Guardian that it was in discussion with the ICO about the shift, but maintains user privacy will be protected despite the change.
Google, which in the past has used the motto "don't be evil" to explain its core philosophy, also reversed course this year on a promise to eliminate third-party cookies from Chrome.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.