Alphabet Faces Complaint Over Chrome Tracking 

Alphabet’s Google faces a complaint by Austrian Advocacy Group NOYB, claiming improper tracking of users through its Chrome web browser. 

This latest move adds to the growing scrutiny by the European Union’s (EU) antitrust regulators on the company’s data privacy practices. Google has been avoiding third-party cookies used by advertisers to monitor consumer behavior to enhance user privacy. 

Privacy Sandbox Investigated 

The U.S. tech giant has unveiled the Privacy Sandbox, a collection of tools designed with the aim to prevent concealed tracking and to reduce data sharing with the use of third parties. These tools enable developers and publishers to measure ad performance without the need for tracking individual users. 

The ad privacy feature in Chrome requires users to decide whether they would like to activate it for them to avoid being tracked. As per NOYB, this feature allows Google to track users within the browser, while it must ask users’ permission first, as required by European Union privacy rules. 

NOYB founder Max Schrems stated, “People thought they were agreeing to a privacy feature but were tricked into accepting Google’s first-party ad tracking. Consent has to be informed, transparent and fair to be legal. Google has done the exact opposite.” 

The complaint against Alphabet’s Google was filed on Thursday by the NOYB group with Austrian data protection authority, aiming to continue its efforts to hold tech giants accountable for alleged privacy violations. 

Fighting for Data Privacy 

For years, NOYB had filed similar various complaints with both EU and national privacy watchdogs, targeting various major tech firms for purportedly infringing on user privacy. 

This complaint highlights the growing tension between tech giants and privacy advocates, emphasizing the need for clear and fair data privacy practices in the digital age. 

It is also worth mentioning that this is not the first time Google has faced such cases related to privacy. For instance, the tech giant was accused of allegedly tracking users through incognito mode, then to settle the law it has agreed to delete a significant amount of the data collected. 

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