2020 Review: The clash of the advertising industry

Here we offer you a 2020 review of the advertising industry that is struggling to make more money and it wants to protect its trackers for this. There were many shy attempts to get rid of the third-party cookies – those pieces of code that advertisers use to follow us. Still, the industry is doing its best to postpone the moment as much as possible

Still, no categorical decision has been made yet, as there is the industry is not ready to give up one of its most useful online tools. No matter they bothers users and concerns them about the way their personal data will be used.

Google poses as a defender of personal data

If we have a 2020 review on Google’s actions, we might wonder if the giant really wants to get rid of the systems that help its platforms follow us all the time. In fact, Google’s revenues come mainly from ads. So, it would mean that the giant would cut its own money if it was to give up the third-party cookies.

Let’s see how things went. First, the company came with its Chrome 83 browser, which allows users to block third-party cookies. But this happens only in Incognito mode. It said that it would start “blocking third-party cookies by default within each incognito session.”

Still, according to the company’s officials, the process to permanently kill third-party cookies might last at least two years.

Then, the new ad blocker feature of the Chrome 85 version surprised both the users and the industry. But it turned out to be just a tool that would help ads on its own platform make more money. This is because it would block only “heavy ads”, coming from third parties.

Google’s tricky movements

Still, its own video platform – YouTube, announced in September its engaged-view conversions (EVCs), in order to track “conversions that take place after someone views 10 seconds or more of your skippable ad, but doesn’t click.”

Then, a new surprise came from Google – it changed the rules for ad blockers with its newest extension platform, Manifest v3. And this created a huge controversy, as it got rid of the blocking capabilities that the API used to allow.

Although they mentioned that the move was trying to “evolve the platform,” independent ad blocking browser extensions will suffer because of this. In fact, Facebook came with a quote from Sofia Lindberg, a tech lead for an ad blocker maker. She mentioned that ad-blocking extensions will still work. But they did not mention that Google pays Lindberg’s company not to block the platform’s ads.

Facebook ads – a 2020 analysis

But Google was not the only huge player to fight for the third-party cookies. Facebook also did what it could to protect its revenues of billions of dollars.

So, it announced that it rejected 2.2 million ads during the U.S. presidential elections and labeled ads and news from the state controlled media. Still, it would not give up the tracking system.

Still, it came with Facebook Shops in May and also let its users know that it would invest in features across all its apps. According to the company, it did this to inspire people “to shop and make buying and selling online easier.”

Under these circumstances, Facebook’s representatives seemed to have a nervous breakdown when Apple came with new privacy features on iOS. Those would affect personalized ads on Apple devices So, the company paid full-page print and digital ads in New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post and even opened a new website, to outline its arguments.

Native ad blockers – the only viable solution for 2021

After this 2020 review, it becomes clear that the only solution for users that are aware of their personal data and are unhappy with intrusive ads, the only viable solution is a native ad blocker.

This is because Google can not alter their effectiveness by changing its policies. Moreover, they work on Google, Facebook and any other platform, as long as they are up to date.

So, if you care about your privacy, about your data and hate to be bothered by ads all the time, Ad Guardian Plus could come as the right choice. Give it a try! Protect your privacy, stay away from the annoying ads and block the naughty trackers!