On today’s Internet, data is as precious as gold was in the Ancient world. Browsing data is data that is created automatically when you browse the Internet.
Whenever you visit a website, lots of things happen in the background. Requests are made, cookies and site data may be saved to the local system, and the cache is filled with data. The browser adds a record to its browsing history and maybe to other logs, e.g., when files get downloaded.
Data stored on third-party servers is not considered browsing data, but it may be generated as well.
This browsing data reveals a lot about you. What you like or your interests. It may reveal how old you are, if you are ill or looking for companionship. It may reveal what you plan to buy next or have bought, what you may need or needed.
Browsing data is personal data. This makes it desirable for nearly everyone on today’s Internet.
Who wants it and why: advertising
When asked, most Internet users would probably mention advertising first. Today’s advertising on the Internet relies to a large degree on information. The more information about a user, the better the chance to display targeted adverts and produce sales.
Tracking plays a large role in this. Most Internet users would probably disallow tracking if there was an easy switch integrated in browsers. There is none.
Google would be in an excellent position to create such a switch: it controls Chromium, the world’s most widely used browser source and Chrome,, the world’s most widely used browser. It also operates some of the world’s most visited websites.
Google is, however, an advertising company. Most of its revenue comes from advertising, which means that it benefits from the system that is in place.
But Google is ending third-party cookies in 2024, I hear you say. This is true, but this is not done without introducing another system that works in its place beforehand.
Built-into Google Chrome directly, it analyzes the browsing history locally to assign interests groups to the user. Websites may also suggests interests based on your visits.
Sites and advertisers may use the information for displaying ads based on your interests.
Google calls these “Interests estimated by Chrome” and “sites you visit that define your interests”.
Granted, Google Chrome includes controls to turn all of this off. There is also a popup with information about this in Chrome.
As is often the case in life, the wording matters. Google calls this Privacy Sandbox, which is an euphemistic term. It may be better than tracking via third-party cookies, but it is still tracking in the end. By the way, you can already disable third-party cookies in your browser, no need to wait for Google to do so in 2024.
Quick Tip: disabling Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox
All you have to do is the following:
- Load chrome://settings/privacySandbox in the Chrome address bar.
- Disable “Trials” on the page that opens.
Note that this page is not final and that Google will likely make changes to it. You may also want to click on every option there to expand it and make sure it is turned off as well.
These are at the time of writing:
- Browser-based ad personalization
- Ad measurement
- Spam & fraud protection.
AI wants it, too
AI has taken a big leap in 2023. New products release on a weekly basis. All of these have in common that they require data, lots of data.
It is used for training for the most part. A current trend is the integration of AI services into browsers and other programs. Even Windows 11 has its own AI integration, called Windows Copilot now.
These work best if they got access to user data. Personal data usually requires giving consent in these cases, for instance when the request comes from a user.
Microsoft is testing a new option in Edge Canary currently that gives Bing Chat Microsoft access to all page content. It is disabled by default, as it sends all browsing data to Microsoft “to make AI-generated answers and suggestions more relevant on Copilot”.
Not all AI products require access to personal data. The basic chat AI tools act on user input. Personalization, on the other hand, gets better with data. If an AI knows your interests, it may be of better service.
Take holiday planning as an example. If you ask AI for 5 sights in Barcelona, it may look like this: Gothic Quarter, Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló, Casa Amatller and Park Güell.
If the AI knew more about your interests or personal information, it may have suggested different sights. Say, you love football or are travelling with young children or dislike crowds.
Users who like this may opt-in and maybe improve their experience with the AI. Whether that is also giving Microsoft more information and also better options to display targeted ads should be clear from the previous paragraphs.
Closing Words
Browsing data is valuable and it should be protected. Not everything is opt-in in today’s world and that is a problem. An upcoming tutorial will provide guidance on protecting browsing data.
What about you? Do you allow services to use your browsing data?
I’d rather ask if we disallow services to use our browsing data given that allowing is the browsers’ default configuration : many preferencs are natively not in favor of users’ privacy.
– Do I modify naive browser settings in favor of my privacy? Yes.
– Do I use dedicated extensions to improve my privacy? Yes
If allowing services to use our browsing data was an opt-in choice who knows the percentage of users who would unwillingly take advantage of a healthier privacy environment? Close certainly to the percentage of users who are tracked unwillingly because they use browsers’ default settings. How many of us don’t care, how many aren’t aware? Certainly a wide majority when we know that the leading market-share browser is that of an advertisement company.
My guess is that only a small percentage of users opt-ins to something like that, unless either giving an incentive or tricked. That’s why most of these are opt-out rather than opt-in. Google’s Privacy Sandbox would not be very successful if only 1% of Chrome users would opt-in and 99% would say no to it.
Settings which do not advantage the user should always be opt-in, settings which are undoubtedly in favor of his privacy need not an option to allow or refuse, settings which are in favor of his privacy but questionable in terms of side-effects could be opt-out. Unfortunately browsers include many settings of the first category. If you consider a Firefox configuration tool such as ‘Arkenfox user.js’, and even though it’s been substantially lightened over the years, you’ll notice several prefs which are modified systematically, and those prefs correspond to what I mention as belonging to the first category. Data collection and use for instance is opt-out. Browsers track their users, Firefox as well, and that should be opt-in.