- Microsoft Edge users are set to enjoy more privacy thanks to their new feature, the Transparent Ads tracker.
- Microsoft has highlighted that they have no business trying to use this new feature to gain a competitive advantage.
- The feature allows users to see which sites an ad provider tracked the user across and disable personalized ads.
Microsoft has announced that its web browser, Edge, will soon have an ad tracking feature called Transparent Ads. This feature will supposedly improve user privacy.
In spite of ongoing criticism that has earned the company a bad rap, Microsoft is pressing forward with a privacy-spying tool similar to Google’s.
However, Google’s policy of removing Flash-based ads from its mobile browser was seen as a way to protect its advertising revenue and was ultimately postponed.
Microsoft, however, claims that it has no intention of using Transparent Ads to gain a competitive advantage.
Microsoft Edge will provide consumers with more control over how advertisers gather personal data from their browsing histories, the company says.
Transparent Ads tracker pros
Additionally, the ad feature will tell users which products the ads are promoting based on the data. The core abilities of this tool are the following:
- See which companies participate in the Google Transparency Reporting program.
- Allows you to view information about the provider responsible for displaying an ad.
- View information about the data an ad provider collected or inferred from your visits to this and other sites in order to personalize ads for you.
- See which sites an ad provider tracked the user across.
- See the ad provider’s privacy policy to learn how to delete or de-identify previously collected data.
- Microsoft Edge has a setting that disables personalized ads. This setting means data and advertising companies will not collect your personal data.
Transparency
Microsoft’s similar feature, which is similar to Google’s new initiative, may not be as transparent as at first, it seems.
Although Google is refusing to comment on the reason for this move, Microsoft has explained that the reason is that Google is trying to exclude some advertisers from using the company’s tracking tool.
In order to ensure that any ads are viewed in a non-tracking mode by default, anyone who participates in Google’s program as an advertiser must meet certain requirements. However, they will be exempt from any tracking when Balanced mode is chosen.
Because the Strict Privacy mode blocks most ads, advertisers are able to continue sending personalized ads. Users can choose this mode if they wish to stop most ads from all advertisers.
Microsoft Edge’s Transparent Ads feature is now available for testing in the Canary Channel.
Which feature excites you most about Microsoft Edge’s new feature? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.
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