Google’s latest move to add a dashboard of sorts to its Chrome browser that would let its users take control of their cookie files is a welcome step, but in all likelihood it is not going to make much of a difference in the way third-party websites and agencies track and trade user data. Granted, of late, the tech giant has been tweaking its algorithms to tighten user privacy, especially after the Facebook-sponsored Cambridge Analytica data-manipulation scandal broke out, triggering a global hue and cry around the need for technology companies to bring in more checks and balances to protect the privacy of users and prevent third parties from abusing individual’s data for commercial, political and propaganda needs. But most of the measures that came from Google or parent Alphabet Inc — such as allowing users to control search histories — did appear cosmetic, especially if one considers that Google recently faced the wrath of privacy rights activists and the US Congress after it was found that the company’s Nest Secure system had a ‘secret’ microphone.

In January this year, French regulators fined Google $57 million for breaching Europe’s data-privacy rules — the General Data Protection Regulation. Responding to the EU penalty, Google said that people expected high standards of transparency and control from the company and it was “deeply committed” to meeting those expectations. That said, not many significant measures have come from the technology giant that could make a difference in the way user information is collected and used. The privacy dashboard looks nice on paper. Now users may be able to know who’s tracking them and how and they can limit that activity. Advertisers use cookies, which basically are small text files that track web users, to target their consumers. Now allowing users to know and limit the activity alone is not going to help much, given that most users, especially in the Third World markets, may not be savvy at fiddling with these blanket settings. This seems to the usual strategy employed by tech companies — shifting the onus of privacy protection from them to the users. That’s easy and lazy. Letting users have more control over the way Google sells data to advertisers is a plausible solution to start with.

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