Google has released a detailed response to claims made about Privacy Sandbox in a recent report by the IAB Tech Lab. In a brief statement to which the response was attached, Google said:
“(T)he analysis contains many misunderstandings and inaccuracies, which we consider important to correct in order to provide accurate information to the ecosystem. Overall, the report appears to ignore the broader objective of Privacy Sandbox to enhance user privacy while supporting effective digital advertising.”
The IAB Tech Lab assessment identified several problems advertisers and media companies may face using the proffered solution, including the abandonment of event-based impression and click metrics and the need for significant changes within the programmatic advertising ecosystem.
Why we care. Google seemed caught off guard by the Tech Lab’s scathing commentary, issuing only a very brief email response on the day it appeared. It has obviously been working hard since: The new response runs to 28 pages of detailed criticism. Will the IAB respond?
Google’s Privacy Sandbox has taken a beating recently, not least from the U.K. government’s Competition and Markets Authority instructing Google not to deprecate third-party cookies until a series of objections had been resolved. Is anyone putting money on cookies being gone by year-end?
Google’s chief complaints. Google singled out four main areas in the Tech Lab report as objectionable:
- Corrections to assumptions or use case gaps that are supported by the Privacy Sandbox APIs.
- Use cases that are currently not supported by third-party cookies and are thus out of scope.
- Feedback and/or proposals that could potentially recreate cross-site tracking and go against privacy-preserving goals.
- Areas where the solution should be determined by the ad tech provider (not the browser or platform) or where the ad tech provider needs to adapt new tactics building on top of Privacy Sandbox.
Google said that it would welcome additional feature requests and possible improvement suggestions from the IAB Tech Lab adding that it would continue to move forward with the plan to phase out third-party cookies in 2024, “subject to addressing any remaining competition concerns from the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority.” Google’s full response is here.
Additional reporting by Nicola Agius
Take the MarTech Salary and Career Survey
From AI to layoffs, it’s been quite a year. How has it been for you? Please take our short survey so we can tell you the state of martech salaries and careers.
Get MarTech! Daily. Free. In your inbox.
About the author
Kim Davis is currently editor at large at MarTech. Born in London, but a New Yorker for almost three decades, Kim started covering enterprise software ten years ago. His experience encompasses SaaS for the enterprise, digital- ad data-driven urban planning, and applications of SaaS, digital technology, and data in the marketing space. He first wrote about marketing technology as editor of Haymarket’s The Hub, a dedicated marketing tech website, which subsequently became a channel on the established direct marketing brand DMN. Kim joined DMN proper in 2016, as a senior editor, becoming Executive Editor, then Editor-in-Chief a position he held until January 2020. Shortly thereafter he joined Third Door Media as Editorial Director at MarTech.
Kim was Associate Editor at a New York Times hyper-local news site, The Local: East Village, and has previously worked as an editor of an academic publication, and as a music journalist. He has written hundreds of New York restaurant reviews for a personal blog, and has been an occasional guest contributor to Eater.
