Apple's new anti-tracking system will make Google and Facebook even more powerful
The internet is an ad-tracking machine. It’s been true
for long enough that we rarely talk about it anymore, but it bears
repeating. For all the free speech and free information, nearly any site
you visit will come with a dozen different tracking cookies, enabling
uniquely tailored ads to follow you from site to site. Targeted
advertising is still the best way to make money on the internet, so
those cookies are everywhere. (The Verge is no exception; that
VR room isn’t cheap.) Sites try not to be creepy about it, some harder
than others, but the overarching logic is hard to escape. It’s a
multibillion-dollar business, and it pays for nearly everything you see
online.
Yesterday at WWDC, Apple threw a wrench into that system.
Alongside new autoplay blockers, the latest versions of Safari
(currently in beta) will have a new tool for blocking third-party ad trackers,
aggressively identifying and blocking any cookies used to track users
across the web. As Craig Federighi said onstage, “It’s not about
blocking ads, but your privacy is protected.”
It’s an important move, particularly for the mobile web,
where Safari manages just under 30 percent of browsing sessions. When
Safari added the option for ad-blocking with iOS 9, it was a day of reckoning for many web companies — raising hard questions about the future of mobile browsing. This week’s announcement is primed to make a similar splash.
According to Marc Al-Hames, who works on the
privacy-focused browser Cliqz, companies are already scrambling to
figure out the best way around the new restrictions. “This is a
cat-and-mouse game, and it always has been,” Al-Hames says. “Users try
out different things to protect themselves, and there’s a
multibillion-dollar ad tech industry thinking of ways to circumvent it.”
Surprisingly, Google and Facebook are poised to come out
of that game ahead. But to understand why, we need to dig into how the
new policy works. Safari has had some version of cookie-blocking
for years, but the previous default was to allow cookies “from websites
I visit.” The new policy goes further, using machine learning to
identify tracking behavior no matter how the cookies are served. In many
cases, blocking those cookies outright would break basic
functionalities. Instead, Safari puts a strict time limit on how long
the cookie can stick around, keeping cookies available for 24 hours
after a visit and outright deleting anything older than 30 days.
“Your privacy is protected.”
The crucial distinction is between the first-party sites
you’re purposefully visiting and the third-party trackers that come
along for the ride. As long as a cookie is associated with a website
you’ve visited in the last 24 hours, Safari won’t change much — which
gives popular sites like Facebook and the various Google services an
easy way around the new restrictions. The systems hit hardest by
Safari’s new policy will be third-party systems like Criteo or Adroll,
which silently coordinate cookies in the background of thousands of
sites. Not coincidentally, Criteo’s stock plummeted in the wake of the announcement.
That’s much less of a problem for Google and Facebook,
which already dominate online ads. Most people visit Facebook or a
Google service every day, and those users will never be too far outside
the 24-hour window. Both services also work as a kind of permanent
login, used to access sites like Twitter or WordPress without a separate
password. As a result, most users stay logged in to Google and Facebook
as long as they’re online. Combine that with omnipresent Like buttons,
and you’ve got an easy way to see what people are doing on the web. And
as long as you’re visiting Facebook once a day, Safari won’t get in the
way of that tracking.
Google and Facebook’s biggest challengers in ad-targeting are telecom companies like Verizon and Comcast, which were given a huge
boost by recent shifts in US telecom policy.
But those companies should fare just as well. Both Verizon and Comcast
invested heavily in web media alongside advertising tech, which means
they can take advantage of the same first-party exception as Google and
Facebook. (Disclosure: One of Comcast’s media investments is a minority
stake in Vox Media, parent company of The Verge.) As long as you’re visiting AOL or Huffington Post sites once a day, Verizon will have no problem targeting ads, and cookie-serving deals may extend that reach even further.
“This is a cat-and-mouse game, and it always has been.”
At the same time, ad networks that aren’t attached to
popular websites will take a serious hit. It won’t be a total blackout,
since most modern networks supplement cookies with more advanced
fingerprinting techniques that profile visitors without transmitting any
data. They can also try to make cookie-serving agreements with
websites, collecting data at the same time that they serve the ads
themselves. But the new Safari policy will still put those ad companies
at a permanent disadvantage to more powerful players like Google and
Facebook. Those companies were already outmatched — with Google and
Facebook capturing 90 cents of every new dollar spent on online ads
— and the new browser moves will make it even harder for them to
survive. The result will tip the balance even farther toward the handful
of giant companies that already dominate the web.
Apple isn’t the only force pushing the web in that direction. The European Commission’s recent anti-tracking proposals would establish a similar distinction between first and third parties. Only last week, Google announced an ad-blocker for Chrome
that’s likely to edge out small players even further. It’s still hard
to say what that will mean for smaller websites and everyday users, but
Google and Facebook will only become more central to the business of the
web.
Underneath it all is the basic logic of consolidation.
These players — Google, Facebook, Verizon, and Comcast — control huge
portions of how we connect to the web, from the servers to the fiber to
the device, ending with the browser itself. Now, they’re using that
control to play for advantage in ad-tracking, with users stuck in the
middle. iOS and Safari are incredibly powerful tools in that fight, and
by all appearances, Apple is using them to try to craft a less invasive
web experience for its users. But after more than a decade of ad tech,
untangling that knot may be harder than the company realizes.
Via theVerge
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