At Day 1 of its annual conference for software developers held in Mountain View, California, technology giant Google showed off several new products and features. However, one of the most important disclosures remained that the company said they were committed to helping maintain customers’ control over their own data.
Google has already been fined millions of dollars by the GDPR regulatory body for violating data and privacy policies, and now the company has introduced new ways to make sure their mistakes aren’t repeated.
“We strongly believe that privacy and security are for everyone, not just a few,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said.
At the conference, it was announced that the company will release an update for Google Chrome, which will give more details to users about their cookies and how Google tracks them. While this move looks like a major victory for users and regulatory bodies, it has put marketers in a bit of a pickle. It is not an unknown fact that Google makes use of data from cookies to boost ads on the platform.
Dan Goldstein, the president, and owner of digital marketing agency Page 1 Solutions shared his thoughts on Google’s move with TechFunnel. Goldstein manages the needs of clients along with the need to ensure the protection of their consumers, which has become one of the top concerns from clients over the last year. Goldstein is also a former attorney and balances the marketing side with the legal side when it comes to protection for both companies and their consumers.
Goldstein commended the move, saying:
“I am happy to see Google positioning itself as a privacy-forward company. Given the Chrome browser’s dominance, it allows Google to promote consumer privacy like Apple while distinguishing Google from Facebook with its multitude of data privacy scandals.
This should be a positive step toward data privacy for consumers and it may force advertisers to focus on contextual advertising – advertising to consumers who visit specific web pages based on the content on those pages. Contextual advertising feels a lot less like Big Brother and benefits consumers by presenting them with ads that are relevant to the content of the pages they are visiting.
This change should allow advertisers to target consumers based on their interests, and that is a win-win for both consumers and advertisers. At the end of the day, it will probably also be a win for Google if more advertising dollars go to Google Ads in search.”
Marketing analysts and digital marketers will now closely be measuring returns from advertising on Google. It does, however, remain to be seen whether this move will have any implications on Google’s ad revenue.
