Publishers Question Related Website Sets, Google’s Privacy Sandbox Solution for Cross-Site Tracking

Publishers use RWS to continue to track readers across websites they own, so that they can monetize their audiences effectively, even though Google maintains that RWS is not an advertising solution, unlike other Privacy Sandbox solutions like Topics API (application-programming interface), Protected Audiences API and the Attribution Reporting API.

In 2022, Google limited the number of domains a publisher can register as part of an associated RWS to three, addressing privacy concerns from governance body W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium) and regulatory watchdog the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority. In September 2023, Chrome raised the domain limit for RWS to five. Four sources say that this higher bar is still insufficient for publishers.

“Only through this being a publisher group is there a chance to compete with the platforms,” said one publishing ad-tech source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Moreover, if brands can’t track users effectively between the various sites they own, publishers might not get proper credit for their advertising, said Amanda Martin, senior vice president of monetization and business strategy at publisher network Mediavine.

“Our concern is more on the brand side and how it allows them to track and attribute from ads,” she said. “The biggest risk associated with the deprecation for third-party cookies is measurement.”

Not restrictive enough

Others, however, think RWS plays too loose with user privacy.

“It encourages companies to buy additional sites that are not related to each other,” said a second publishing ad-tech source. A tennis website might buy a fashion domain with a completely different user base just to have more data to sell to advertisers.

Even publishers sharing user data among the sites they own can violate user privacy, especially because many readers might not know why two websites are related to each other, despite sharing a common owner.

“Either the user is empowered to determine their privacy choices or … a bunch of corporate identities get to make decisions,” the second publishing ad-tech source said.

Ultimately, there are better solutions for publishers trying to maintain targeted advertising across websites, said Don Marti, vp of ecosystem innovation at Raptive, who still believes Google’s domain limit is too restrictive.

“It’s not really a solution that’s going to be a long-term thing for co-owned media sites that want to have addressability,” Marti said.