- Google announced it is going to start limiting the data sharing for its targeted advertising platform in order to safeguard user privacy
Google is going to limit the data sharing for its targeted advertising platform in order to safeguard user privacy. These changes are being applied following engagement with data protection authorities. Google is no longer going to include contextual content categories in the bid requests it sends to buyers participating in its ad auctions starting in February 2020.
“Content categories are descriptions of the type of content on a specific page, website or app. For example, these categories may indicate whether the content is about news or weather, and are intended to provide contextual information to advertisers about the site or app where the impression may appear. They help advertisers avoid showing ads on certain types of content that aren’t suitable for their brands, or as a way for advertisers to identify types of content where they do want to serve ads,” wrote Chetna Bindra, who oversees Google’s Product Management – User Trust, Privacy and Transparency, Advertising, in a company blog post.
Google pointed out that trust is the foundation of a healthy and sustainable advertising ecosystem. And this is why Google is working across products to ensure that its policies and practices are evolving to reflect people’s changing expectations around how data is collected and used. Going forward, Google is going to continue to ensure that people’s choices about the use of their data are respected along with offering additional controls.
“While we already prohibit advertisers from using our services to build user profiles around sensitive categories, this change will help avoid the risk that any participant in our auctions is able to associate individual ad identifiers with Google’s contextual content categories. We’ll also update our EU User Consent Policy audit program for publishers and advertisers, as well as our audits for the Authorized Buyers program. And we will continue to engage with data protection authorities, including the Irish Data Protection Commission as they continue their investigation into data protection practices in the context of Authorized Buyers,” added Bindra.
