Trust Tokens of Google to take Chrome browser Cookies down a peg

Google stated earlier this year it would seek other web browser companies to block third-party cookies in Chrome; developers have their first chance to test a suggested alternative to tracking users across the web: trust tokens.

Unlike cookies, trust tokens are intended to authenticate a user externally, requiring to know their identification.

Trust tokens would not be ready to track users over websites, because they’re theoretically all the same, but they could yet let websites prove to advertisers that genuine users — not bots — visited a site or clicked on an ad.

(An explainer on GitHub recommends that websites could appear multiple separate kinds of trust tokens, though.)

Google’s been a small slower to adopt a clarification for the third-party tracking cookies that everyone hates; Safari and Firefox already block them by default, though Safari is more proactive about it.

But Mike Schulman, Google’s vice president for ads privacy and safety, reiterated in a blog post that the company, however, plans to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome as well ultimately.

In expanding, Google Chrome is performing some tweaks to the “why this ad” button that allows you to see why some ads are targeted to you.

The new “about this ad” label will now present the verified name of the advertiser, too, so you can know which companies are targeting you, and make it more open to people how Google receives personal data for ads. The new labels will begin working out toward the end of the year.

The company also stated an extension for its Chrome browser, currently in alpha, called Ads Transparency Spotlight, which should present “detailed information about all the ads they see on the web.”

Users will be ready to see features about ads on a given page, see why ads are shown on a page, and a list of other companies and services with an appearance on the page, such as website analytics or content delivery networks.