Jedi plan
The lawsuit, filed by the attorney general back in December, largely accused Google of engaging in market collusion and focused on an agreement between Facebook and Google to help each other if either side came under antitrust scrutiny.
After a lapse of 10 months, the lawsuit in the case was updated, and it further pointed out more instances of “colluding” between Google and Facebook. The first is that “Google used its monopoly in the ad tech business to help Facebook bid on ad auctions so that it could win multiple auctions.”
In fact, around 2015, Google encountered some challenges in the advertising business: At that time, there was another bidding method in the market that was different from the traditional Waterfall – Header Bidding.
(Note: Header Bidding, also known as Header Bidding, means that advertisers can use Header Bidding technology to insert a piece of JavaScript code provided by a third party in the page header, which includes various codes such as analysis tracking and advertising services, to help advertising release The merchant chooses the demand code of the ad exchange, ad network or demand side platform (DSP) to bid on all the ad slots on the page.)
The beauty of head bidding is that it bypasses Google’s control over the ad auction ecosystem and its fees, maximizing publisher earnings and boosting their ad revenue.
But higher ad revenue for publishers means less revenue for Google from ad deals. Not only that, but the latest lawsuit states: “Top bids also impair Google’s ability to use market insider and non-public information to trade to profit on the other side.”
Just imagine, Google will be willing to watch all the benefits it has taken away? According to a Google insider, Google launched a program code-named Jedi to ostensibly allow publishers to use its servers to send ad space inventory to multiple ad exchanges at once for sale, but behind the scenes In some secret operations, even if another exchange submitted a higher bid, Google’s own exchange would win.
The Google employee also revealed: “Google has said internally, ‘The Jedi program has brought sub-optimal revenue to publishers, and once it is exposed, it will face serious risks of negative media coverage.’” Through this program, Google has stabilized Its dominant position in the online advertising ecosystem, from which it collects 22%-42% of advertising fees – fees that should belong to publishers and web content producers.
Google and Facebook “two on one”
Among other things, “Google and Facebook have integrated their software development kits (SDKs) to allow Google to pass data to Facebook for user ID cookie matching, making it easier for Facebook content to appear in Google ads,” the lawsuit added. “They also coordinate with each other to harm publishers by adopting flat pricing…”
Not only that, but the latest lawsuit documents also point out that Google and Facebook have joined forces to launch an attack on Apple’s user privacy: “In order to identify the personal information of users who use cookie-blocking browsers, Apple devices, and Apple Safari browsers, these two companies have been working together to bypass efforts by a major tech company to provide users with better privacy protections.”
Combined with the context, the “a major technology company” in the lawsuit documents is likely to refer to Apple.
“Always support fairness and transparency”?
But both Google and Facebook have denied the claims in the latest lawsuit.
“Just because it’s what Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said doesn’t prove it’s true, and this lawsuit is riddled with inaccuracies,” a Google spokesperson said. Google added : “In effect, our ad tech helps websites and apps fund their content and enables small businesses to reach the world of customers around them. So we will stand firmly against his groundless submissions in court, and in addition, We have been a clear supporter of globally consistent privacy rules, for example, we have been calling on Congress for years to pass federal privacy legislation.”
A Facebook spokesperson said: “Facebook has long supported fair and transparent ad auctions, where all bidders compete at the same time and the highest bidder wins. Facebook’s non-exclusive bidding agreement with Google, and similar agreements we have with other bidding platforms, are just It just helps increase competition for ad placement.”
In fact, including Apple involved in the incident, the three tech giants have been at the center of antitrust disputes, facing repeated investigations by government regulators and each other. Take this year as an example, foreign media BusinessInsider has reported that Facebook is preparing to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on the grounds of App Store rules, saying that Apple is killing third-party application developers.
So what’s your take on Google and Facebook teaming up to undermine Apple’s user privacy?
The Links: NL6448AC33-24 SKKT57B12E