Google LLC today said that, as part of a plan to make the web more private, it will not use so-called user-level identifiers to collect information on consumers’ website browsing habits.

The move comes as other tech giants such as Apple Inc. also expand their focus on privacy. 

The background for today’s announcement is Google’s previously disclosed plan to stop using third-party cookies to deliver ads. Third-party cookies are small files downloaded onto users’ devices that track on what websites they visit. Online advertising providers such as Google harness the collected browsing information to customize ads for each user’s interests.

Google is seeking to phase out third-party cookies in 2022. The search giant plans to replace them with more privacy-friendly technologies that will limit the amount of information advertisers can collect on users’ online activity. Today’s announcement, in which the search giant has committed not to implement user-level identifiers after phasing out third-party cookies, reaffirms its previous pledge to enhance privacy on the web.

Google’s decision to move away from user-level identifiers will reduce the level of granularity with which advertisers using its services can track consumers’ online activity. The technology makes it possible to tie browsing information to specific users. This means that when user-level identifiers are not in use, advertisers can’t track the online activity patterns of individual website visitors who make up their target audiences, only the audiences as a whole.

“We continue to get questions about whether Google will join others in the ad tech industry who plan to replace third-party cookies with alternative user-level identifiers,” David Temkin, Google’s director of product management for ads privacy and trust, wrote in the announcement this morning. “Today, we’re making explicit that once third-party cookies are phased out, we will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web, nor will we use them in our products.”

After Google phases out third party cookies, advertisers will still need information on users’ browsing habits to deliver personalized ads. The search giant’s solution is to develop technologies that will allow marketers to personalize their promotions, but at the same time won’t let them use specific individuals’ browsing information.

A key component of that strategy is a technology Google calls Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC for short. FLoC can “hide individuals within large crowds of people with common interests,” Temkin wrote. In other words, marketers can see information about the interests of a given audience, but they can’t view the interests of the specific individuals who make up that audience.

Citing internal experiments, Google in late January said that FLoC can drive “at least 95% of the conversions per dollar spent” by advertisers compared with traditional third-party cookies.

“We realize this means other providers may offer a level of user identity for ad tracking across the web that we will not,” Temkin wrote today, referring to competing advertising providers such as Facebook Inc. “We don’t believe these solutions will meet rising consumer expectations for privacy, nor will they stand up to rapidly evolving regulatory restrictions, and therefore aren’t a sustainable long-term investment.”

Google earlier said it was planning to let advertisers begin testing FLoC via its Google Ads service in the second quarter.

Image: Google