Google is loosening the rules on tracking your digital fingerprint: Google is set to provide advertisers with more flexible restrictions and personalized ad targeting effective 16 February, in the name of innovations that supposedly make personalized ad tracking safer for individual users, the company stated in its updated platform programs policies.

The rationale: Google is branding its new move as a step forward for digital advertisers and users alike, with the new policies incorporating innovations in privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) like on-device processing, Trusted Execution Environments (TTEs), and secure multi-party computation. The company argues that these new technologies offer greater protections for individuals while simultaneously expanding advertisers’ scope for collecting data across a larger set of devices, including smart TVs and gaming consoles.

Critics, however, are ringing the alarm bell about the measures’ invasive new data tracking tools. Digital fingerprinting, the data collection process that Google will start using to track user data across devices, digests all of your online signals in such a way that allows unique users or devices to be identified virtually in perpetuity — even if you clear your browsing history and site data. In comparison to other data collection tools like Chrome’s third-party cookies — which Google was considering nixing before pulling back from the decision in July — digital fingerprinting is more difficult to spot and less easy to consent to than cookies.

Regulators warn that Google’s move could presage a shift away from cookies and toward digital fingerprinting — with potentially harmful results for user privacy. Head of regulatory risk at the UK government’s data and privacy regulator Stephen Almond described Google’s move as “irresponsible,” adding that “the ICO’s view is that fingerprinting is not a fair means of tracking users online because it is likely to reduce people’s choice and control over how their information is collected.” He also noted that Google itself has previously acknowledged the deleterious privacy implications of the technology, quoting a 2019 statement from the company asserting that “We think this subverts user choice and is wrong.”

The timing of the move — which comes as Google faces an antitrust ruling that could divest it of Chrome — seems more than a little coincidental. For one, the collection of tracking data across a wider range of devices could see Chrome shift from its place at the epicenter of Google’s tracking universe to one among many sources of ad tracking, Forbes writes. Even if the search and advertising giant manages to hold on to its web browser, the company is facing down a significantly more competitive search and advertising market — with possible implications for Google’s supremacy in online advertising.

Amazon’s new Haul app is now competing for a slice of the Chinese-sourced goods market. Right before Black Friday, Amazon added a section called Haul to its mobile app, featuring ultra low-priced items that are sourced and shipped from China. This new app appears to be Amazon’s answer to the booming popularity of apps like Temu and Shein, CNBC writes.

From sneakers to kitchenware to phone cases, Haul’s product range includes a little bit of everything. Unlike its competitors, Haul offers all of its products for under USD 20, and also offers free shipping alongside discounts that increase as your total increases, encouraging customers to purchase several pieces in one order.

It’s a trade-off. By shopping from Haul, customers are choosing price over delivery speed. Unlike the one or two days it takes for an Amazon Prime order to arrive, Haul orders may take as much as two weeks — which may be fine by consumers, considering Temu’s success as the most-downloaded free app for two years in a row, despite similar shipping times.

Amazon has made Haul completely separate from its main site. “There’s a logic in doing that,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, told CNBC. “They don’t want consumers to trade down to lower-priced goods.” As it stands, it seems that Haul and Amazon are expected to serve their own individual purposes — rather than compete over Amazon’s existing customer base.

Haul is entering a fast-growing market. Despite the public backlash against these platforms’ business model and the labor practices of Chinese manufacturers, Chinese goods are seeing significant sales growth through platforms like Temu, Alibaba, Shein, and more recently, TikTok shop. “Consumers don’t put their money where their mouth is. They say they don’t like the consequences of cheap products, but yet they still go and buy them in droves,” Saunders said.

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