UK probes Google plan to ditch web cookies

critics say users would be locked into Google’s own invasive tracking tools, and that companies such as media publishers that rely on cookies to generate revenues from their online content could be frozen out. — AFP

LONDON: Britain’s competition regulator on Jan 8 launched an investigation into plans by Google to eliminate tracking “cookies” on its Chrome browser, after criticism it would entrench the search leader’s overwhelming dominance.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), newly empowered after Britain regained anti-trust powers from the European Union under its Brexit divorce, said it was looking into Google’s “Privacy Sandbox” project announced a year ago.