An antitrust lawsuit against Google has been changed to take into account changes in ad tracking in Chrome. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the multi-state case, which focuses on Google’s advertising technology, in December. Meanwhile, five more attorneys general (from Alaska, Florida, Montana, Nevada and Puerto Rico) have joined the lawsuit, for a total of 15 years.
The AGs claim that Google is using its dominant market position in search, video and other areas to destroy smaller advertising networks and that advertisers need to make effective use of their platform. The updated pack contains a section on Google’s Privacy Sandbox, which is partly about using anonymous data to deliver relevant ads to large groups. Google plans to block third-party tracking cookies in Chrome by 2022.
The lawsuit accuses Google of “hiding its true intentions behind a pretext of privacy” and suggests that the changes put “Google’s Chrome browser at the center of detection and targeting.” It is noted that Google plans to eliminate the primary cookie tracking technology for almost everyone. non-Google publishers are currently used to track users and target ads “, arguing that the move will force advertisers to switch to Google money that would otherwise be spent on smaller publishers, such as local newspapers.
“Attorney General Paxton’s latest allegations characterize many aspects of our business, including the steps we are taking with the Privacy Sandbox initiative to protect people’s privacy while browsing the Internet,” Google said in a statement. statement told Engadget. “These efforts are welcomed by privacy advocates, advertisers and our own competitors as a step forward in protecting users’ privacy and free content. We will strongly defend ourselves against AG Paxton’s unfounded claims in court.”
The UK also announced an investigation into Privacy Sandbox earlier this year.
Google recently unveiled the next phase of its plan to block cookies while maintaining its advertising business. It said it would stop selling ads based on the individual browsing history and that it would no longer make tools to track a user’s data in its own products.
Update 3/16 16:44 ET: Google’s statement added.