U.K. regulators are investigating whether a Google privacy initiative will crush publishers\u2019 ability to generate revenue, in the first big post-Brexit antitrust probe.<\/p>\n
The Competition and Markets Authority said it will review Google\u2019s move to curb the ways in which advertising data is collected because the move could \u201cundermine competition in digital advertising, entrenching Google\u2019s market power.\u201d<\/p>\n
The British investigation adds to Google\u2019s legal headaches around the world. The Mountain View, California-based company faces lawsuits from the U.S. Department of Justice and multiple states over allegedly anticompetitive practices.<\/p>\n
The move comes as the increasingly tech-focused CMA prepares to unveil a new digital regulator later in the spring.<\/p>\n
The new probe focuses on Google\u2019s decision to restrict the cookies that help advertisers monitor customers\u2019 browsing habits and pinpoint the effectiveness of different advertising. Google\u2019s Chrome is the dominant web browser and the changes will be followed by rival products based on Google technology, such as Microsoft Corp.\u2019s Edge.<\/p>\n
Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc., said it would work with the CMA as it develops \u201cnew proposals to underpin a healthy, ad-supported web without third-party cookies.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCreating a more private web, while also enabling the publishers and advertisers who support the free and open internet, requires the industry to make major changes to the way digital advertising works,\u201d Google said.<\/p>\n
Publishers and advertising technology companies\u00a0complained\u00a0in November that the privacy changes will curb members\u2019 ability to gather information on web users, which helps them offer more valuable advertising. Smaller media companies are at risk of losing as much as 75% of their revenue, it said.<\/p>\n
The complainants, known as Marketers for an Open\u00a0Web<\/span>, said the U.K. probe is \u201cvital for the future of all online businesses, including publishers, technology businesses and advertisers.\u201d<\/p>\n The CMA said in a July report that phasing out of third-party cookies could hurt publishers\u2019 ability to make money and invest in online content. It\u2019s used Google data to estimate that U.K. publishers \u201cearned around 70% less revenue overall when they were unable to use third-party cookies to sell personalized advertising but competed against others who could.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.K. regulator has signaled it will take a tough stance on powerful technology companies after took on more responsibilities following the Brexit transition. It plans to set up a special task force to oversee digital markets.<\/p>\n Google has more than a 90% share of the 7.3 billion-pound ($9.9 billion) U.K. search market, the CMA said in July.<\/p>\n U.K. regulators are investigating whether a Google privacy initiative will crush publishers\u2019 ability to generate revenue, in the first big post-Brexit antitrust probe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":256041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[37797,167],"class_list":["post-381928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-brexit","tag-google"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381930,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381928\/revisions\/381930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: WhatsApp privacy policy change only about business messaging \u2013 Facebook<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"