Google’s plan to stop tracking users’ web browsing to sell online advertisements has reportedly led to an investigation by the Justice Department, which is investigating whether the move could hurt smaller rivals in the online advertising industry.
Google announced earlier this month that it will stop tracking users’ web browsing, also known as “cookies,” to sell online advertisements as a response to privacy concerns.
The Justice Department is looking into whether Google is using its browser Chrome, which has more than half of the global market share, to hamper competition and prevent smaller ad rivals from tracking users through cookies while still finding ways to gather valuable user data for itself, according to a report Thursday from Reuters.
Google raked in a little over 50% of global digital ad spending in 2020, totaling $292 billion, according to Jounce Media, a digital-ad consultancy.
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More than a dozen executives from relevant companies within multiple sectors, including the online ad industry, have spoken with Justice Department investigators, a source told Reuters. However, the ad investigation may not lead to any legal action by the DOJ.
The Justice Department has been investigating Google’s search and advertising business since mid-2019, under former President Donald Trump’s Attorney General Bill Barr. Last October, the DOJ sued Google for allegedly using monopolistic tactics in order to maintain its top position in the online search market. The federal government has continued to look into Google’s ad practices.
Google says its decision to stop tracking users will cause significant changes to the digital advertising industry by shifting away from individualized tracking to create better data privacy standards.
Instead, the company said it will only use “privacy-preserving technologies” that use methods such as anonymization or aggregation of data.
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Google had already announced last year that by 2022 it would stop using third-party cookies, the tracking technology that fuels much of its digital advertising infrastructure, within its Chrome browser.
