Technology
Google backs down on plan to eliminate third-party cookies

Index Exchange, a participant within the Google grant program created to test Privacy Sandbox, published its own blog post on July 2 detailing the issues it saw with Google’s innovations.
In 2020, Google planned to make third-party cookies obsolete, essentially making first-party cookies obsolete with what it called Privacy Sandbox. The feature was touted by the tech company as a breakthrough for user privacy while also allowing publishers and ad buyers to goal ads to consumers and perform some measurement tasks within the background. Google has somewhat backed away from these original plans On July 22, the corporate posted a blog post saying it could proceed to support third-party cookies because its solution was not yet ready to be released.
According to a Google blog post: “Early testing by ad tech companies, including Google, has shown that Privacy Sandbox APIs have the potential to achieve these results. We expect the overall performance of using Privacy Sandbox APIs to improve over time as industry adoption increases. At the same time, we recognize that this change requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising.”
The company continued: “Accordingly, we are proposing an updated approach that increases user choice. Instead of phasing out third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that allows people to make informed choices about how they browse the web, and they can adjust that choice at any time. We are discussing this new path with regulators and will work with the industry as we implement it.”
According to , the partners Google referenced in a blog post by Anthony Chavez, Vice President of Privacy Sandbox, who expressed concerns that Google’s feature wasn’t ready for release yet. Index Exchange, a Google grant program participant created to test Privacy Sandbox, published its own blog post on July 2, detailing the problems it saw with Google’s innovation. “With its current limitations, Privacy Sandbox may not yet be an effective solution for widespread use, or it may be too expensive for technology companies to prepare their implementations for general availability. There are significant risks to publishers and the software ecosystem that we must address to make scaling easier and more efficient.”
They continued by detailing how Google’s requirements lead to latency issues: “This latency is primarily due to the requirement for Google to be the top seller in the PA auctions, which in turn requires all non-Google bids to be processed by Google Ad Manager (GAM) before the auction begins. All auction participants must also wait for Google to finalize the winning bid. Latency can be reduced by allowing other publishers and ad exchanges to compete directly in the client-side auction via Prebid. This would create a more level playing field and significantly speed up online transactions.”
According to , the Google feature was blocked due to a CMA grievance filed by the Open Network Movementad industry group. According to the group’s co-founder, James Rosewell, “We have long advocated for Privacy Sandbox to be allowed to compete on its own merits. If advertisers prefer this approach and consumers value its purported privacy benefits, it will be widely adopted. It was unacceptable for such a solution to be forced upon the market while removing all alternative choices.”
In 2021 criticized Google’s program for instance of “privacy theater.” Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC, is meant to hide users in groups of comparable interests. But Ashkan Soltani, a privacy researcher and former chief technologist on the Federal Trade Commission, said Google’s FLoC project and its proposal don’t solve the issue of surveillance capitalism. Instead, they leave your entire ecosystem and its problems intact. “It doesn’t solve the fundamental problem of surveillance capitalism,” Soltani said. “It still encourages the exchange of personal data. It still encourages the collection of personal data. All of that remains unchanged. The externalities associated with things like clickbait or around things like controversial content to generate more clicks and views, disinformation — all of those questions are still there and untouched.”
Technology
This is the shipping of products from China to the USA

The Chinese retailer has modified the strategy in the face of American tariffs.
Thanks to the executive ordinance, President Donald Trump ended the so -called de minimis principle, which allowed goods value 800 USD or less entering the country without tariffs. It also increases tariffs to Chinese goods by over 100%, forcing each Chinese firms and Shein, in addition to American giants, similar to Amazon to adapt plans and price increases.
CNBC reports that this was also affected, and American buyers see “import fees” from 130% to 150% added to their accounts. Now, nevertheless, the company is not sending the goods directly from China to the United States. Instead, it only displays the offers of products available in American warehouses, while goods sent from China are listed as outside the warehouse.
“He actively recruits American sellers to join the platform,” said the spokesman ago. “The transfer is to help local sellers reach more customers and develop their companies.”
(tagstotransate) tariffs
Technology
One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.
IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.
Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.
In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”
These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.
Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.
According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.
TechCrunch event
Berkeley, California
|.
June 5
Book now
“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.
The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.
Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.
“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”
Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.
The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.
On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.
(Tagstotransate) Gemini
Technology
Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA
The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.
Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.
TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.
The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.
Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.
For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.
TechCrunch event
Berkeley, California
|.
June 5
Book now
At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.
(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation
-
Press Release1 year ago
U.S.-Africa Chamber of Commerce Appoints Robert Alexander of 360WiseMedia as Board Director
-
Press Release1 year ago
CEO of 360WiSE Launches Mentorship Program in Overtown Miami FL
-
Business and Finance11 months ago
The Importance of Owning Your Distribution Media Platform
-
Business and Finance1 year ago
360Wise Media and McDonald’s NY Tri-State Owner Operators Celebrate Success of “Faces of Black History” Campaign with Over 2 Million Event Visits
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Another lawsuit accuses Google of bias against Black minority employees
-
Theater1 year ago
Telling the story of the Apollo Theater
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Henrietta Lacks’ family members reach an agreement after her cells undergo advanced medical tests
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
The families of George Floyd and Daunte Wright hold an emotional press conference in Minneapolis
-
Theater1 year ago
Applications open for the 2020-2021 Soul Producing National Black Theater residency – Black Theater Matters
-
Theater11 months ago
Cultural icon Apollo Theater sets new goals on the occasion of its 85th anniversary