Antitrust prosecutors in Texas have included as one of the suits against technology giant Google, the newly announced plan to remove third-party cookies across their platform network and replace it with a more general sandbox that doesn’t track individual customers across their browser network.
The legal team has suggested that the plan to remove advertiser’s ability to track users across the web will give the search engine giant unfair advantage in the ad buying market.
Google is still fighting other antitrust issues from the Justice Department and state attorney generals in Texas, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Puerto Rico and Mississippi over its monopoly in the publisher ad server market, the exchange market.
The states have challenged Google for forcing publishers to license its ad networks and trade in its ad exchange network among a host of other anti-competitive practices.
It also alleges that Google misled usersabout the privacy of their messages backed up via WhatsApp, by not disclosing that the messages would be decrypted and further used to promote their advertising operations
Google has now responded in a statement that the latest allegations are of no merit and a misrepresentation of its objectives.
“Attorney General Paxton’s ad tech claims are meritless, yet he’s gone ahead in spite of all the facts,” Google spokesperson Peter Schottenfels said. “Our advertising technologies help websites and apps fund their content, enable small businesses to grow, and protect users from exploitative privacy practices and bad ad experiences. The enormous competition in ad tools has made online ads more affordable, reduced fees, and expanded options for publishers and advertisers.”