Google's adding your website 1st party cookie from there SRP. Why???

[Rick Buffkin]

Guys, I'm trying to figure out why Google would add your dealership websites 1st party cookie to the device when a Google user searches out your Dealership name on google. The user doesn't have to visit your website to get a 1st party cookie from it. Why would google add the cookie to the device??

I make a quick video below. It's a little long. sorry! The first few mins will give you gist of it.

 

[Chris Leslie]

What you are seeing are googles first party cookies Its related to analytics.js or Universal Analytics, GTM, etc. Its all basically tied around your user and what you are doing. Its why we can see in Search Console how much traffic we are getting on whatever keywords that aren't advertising.

I did notice that you had logged out of user profile there but did you logout of your actual google account? looking at your screencast It looked like that in the top right you were still logged into chrome.

 

[Chris Leslie]

I dont the exact details but its controlled in your Google Account Settings. for this stuff.

 

[Rick Buffkin]

Thanks Chris. You were right. I was still logged into the Chrome browser. I logged out of my account but not the browser. I took a look at the settings in chrome and I found out what need to be checked off.

With the "Block Third-party cookies and site data" unchecked, I'm pulling in cookies from the website without going to it.

With it checked off and the browser blocking them, non of the cookies from the dealers website was loaded from Googles, SRP.

Something else that was weird is the only time it would pull in the 3rd party cookie is when I typed in the exact name of the dealer. If I did a generic search, I wouldn't be cookied. before I made the video, I did some other searches and I was pretty much getting all the 3rd party cookies that was on the website prior going to it.

 

[Chris Leslie]

Yeah that makes sense with RankBrain trying to figure out what you're looking for and where you're going.

 

[TomLaPointe]

wow.

 

[Alexander Lau]

Google To Offer New Anti-Tracking Tools
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/335663/google-to-offer-new-anti-tracking-tools.html

Google this week confirmed that it plans to make it easier for users of the most popular browser in the country to prevent tracking by ad-tech companies.

The company plans to offer a new mechanism in Chrome that will enable consumers to block third-party cookies -- meaning cookies set by ad-tech companies, including Google's own DoubleClick -- while preserving the first-party cookies that remember usernames and passwords.

Chrome's new feature will not operate by default, which probably means only the most privacy-conscious consumers will use the tool. Of course, much could depend on how clearly Google advertises and explains the cookie-blocking mechanism to consumers.

 

[craigh]

All of these things are such a farce. The only reason they add these features is because people have found a workaround.

For example, Android P/Q talked alot about how you can stop apps from tracking your location in the background.
That's fantastic - people are finally becoming aware that they're constantly being tracked and Google is offering them an out.
Except they're not. Those apps use your wifi, bluetooth, gyro sensor and triangulation to identify where you are.
So, even if you disable all the location services on your phone, most of these companies can still track you based on the wifi your phone sees, which unique bluetooth signatures, etc.
They pay thousands of app vendors (Angry Birds, etc) to track you.

I'm confident this will be very similar. I'm sure you'll be able to avoid cookies that track you obviously, but will it block canvas fingerprinting, cross-site social tracking, etc? Doubt it.

 

[craigh]

PS: One of the under-discussed things about the 5G rollout around the world is how it will also impact this.
5g requires antennas to be much closer together in what is almost a mesh network, rather than having 1 massive tower that services miles of area. Because of this, the companies providing this (China) will have even more precise data on where your phone is at any time that it is connected to a nation wide network.

 

[Alexander Lau]

All of these things are such a farce. The only reason they add these features is because people have found a workaround.

For example, Android P/Q talked alot about how you can stop apps from tracking your location in the background.
That's fantastic - people are finally becoming aware that they're constantly being tracked and Google is offering them an out.
Except they're not. Those apps use your wifi, bluetooth, gyro sensor and triangulation to identify where you are.
So, even if you disable all the location services on your phone, most of these companies can still track you based on the wifi your phone sees, which unique bluetooth signatures, etc.
They pay thousands of app vendors (Angry Birds, etc) to track you.

I'm confident this will be very similar. I'm sure you'll be able to avoid cookies that track you obviously, but will it block canvas fingerprinting, cross-site social tracking, etc? Doubt it.

Right, I never said it would entirely work (no doubt workarounds), but that they are attempting to roll it out. Frankly, I don't trust anything to do with Google.