Google this week released a Chrome extension that shows how many ads are loaded on any given webpage, who the advertisers are or which ad companies are on the page, and which user data has been used to display personalized ads.
The extension, by name Ads Transparency Spotlight, is available in the official Chrome Web Store.
Η Google αναφέρει ότι κυκλοφόρησε την επέκταση για να διευκολύνει τους χρήστες να κατανοήσουν πώς εμφανίζονται οι διαφημίσεις. Η εταιρεία παρουσίαζε στο παρελθόν πληροφορίες για τις δικές της διαφημίσεις μέσω του συνδέσμου "Γιατί αυτή η διαφήμιση" που είχε ενσωματώσει σε κάθε διαφήμιση, αλλά αυτός ήταν ένας μηχανισμός ειδικά για το Google Ads.
Η νέα επέκταση Ads Transparency Spotlight δημιουργήθηκε χρησιμοποιώντας το νέο API "Ad Disclosure Schema" που δημιουργεί ένα ομοιόμορφο σύστημα μέσω του οποίου οι διαφημιζόμενοι μπορούν να αποκαλύψουν πώς λειτουργούν οι διαφημίσεις τους.
At the moment, the Chrome extension only draws its information from Google's Ad Disclosure Schema and displays it in the extension, but Google hopes other advertisers will soon release a similar API / schema for their systems and make the most useful extension, while helping users understand how and why they see specific ads.
According to Google, the extension will display information such as:
- Detailed information about the ads on a web page, including the number of ads on the page.
- A list of ad providers who are responsible for displaying ads on the page.
- The reasons why ads appear on a page. A combination of many factors that decide which ad will appear on a page:
- Your Demographics: May include age, gender and other information.
Marketing Campaign: A visit to the advertiser's website added you to a Marketing Campaign.
Your location: Generally country or city.
Η τοποθεσία σας: Συγκεκριμένα - Η συγκεκριμένη τοποθεσία σας.
Your interests: Topics related to sites you have visited or interests that you have stated yourself.
Content: Topics that appear to anyone visiting this page.
Other information: All other reasons.
In addition to companies that display ads directly, the extension will include companies in the advertising technology industry, such as companies that upload social media buttons, web analytics, or tracking scripts to the page.
The extension released this week is part of a broader effort by Google to revamp the advertising ecosystem and regain confidence of users.
Starting in the spring of 2019, Google launched a project to change the fundamentals of web advertising.
As ad-blocking extensions became more popular, and most browsers began to have built-in features for blocking tracking and fingerprinting, Google saw the future: Web was heading to a state where ads would be excluded from most apps. and sites that depend on ads will eventually disappear slowly, as they will not be able to have revenue.
Google's plan is to prevent such a future move that will block the toxic advertising system we have today.
The first thing Google did was remove third-party cookies, a technology that allows advertisers to track browsers with incredible accuracy.
Second, Google has developed a built-in ad blocker in Chrome that does not block ads on all sites, but only on those that misbehave.
As for replacements for today's ad tech, Google announced Privacy Sandbox in 2019, a new technology that will be built into Chrome and work by sharing enough information from users so that advertisers can organize users into broad groups , but without providing information about it creation ενός μεμονωμένου προφίλ. Για παράδειγμα "σε αυτό τον χρήστη αρέσουν τα σπορ αυτοκίνητα" αντί του "αυτός ο user επισκέφτηκε τους ιστότοπους BMW και McLaren πριν από 20 ώρες").
This week, Google also officially announced a new privacy-friendly API as part of its plan for a better advertising ecosystem.
It is called Trust Token API, and it is a new browser technology that comes to deal with possible problems that will occur after the end of third party cookie support.
The new Trust Token API will create unique cryptographic signed badges for each user that advertisers will not be able to use for tracking. But webmasters will still have access so they can determine if a user is a bot or a real person.
This API is still under development and Google has published an inttreatment on the new technology on her Web.dev blog last month.
