The Austrian advocacy organization NOYB filed a complaint against Google's parent company, Alphabet, on Thursday, accusing it of tracking users in its Chrome browser, an issue that has already attracted the attention of EU antitrust regulators.
In an effort to protect consumer privacy, the U.S. tech giant is gradually phasing out third-party cookies used by advertisers to track consumers.
Google has introduced a suite of tools called Privacy Sandbox, aimed at preventing covert tracking technologies and limiting data sharing with third parties, while allowing developers and publishers to measure ad effectiveness without tracking individual users.
Chrome users are asked whether they want to enable ad privacy features to prevent being tracked.
NOYB (none of your business) stated that this feature actually allows Google to track users within the browser, and the company should first obtain user consent as required by EU privacy regulations.
In a statement, NOYB founder Max Schrems said, "People think they are agreeing to a privacy feature, but in reality, they are being misled into accepting Google's first-party ad tracking. Legitimate consent must be informed, transparent, and fair. Google is doing the exact opposite."
The organization filed the complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority on Thursday.
NOYB has already filed numerous complaints alleging privacy infringements against large tech companies with EU and national privacy regulators.
