GOOGLE OUTLINES A NEW PLAN FOR ONLINE AD TRACKING

Google will let advertisers target people on the web based on a broad set of interests, retreating from an earlier plan that was lambasted over privacy and anticompetitive concerns. Alphabet Inc.’s Google calls the new advertising system Topics. It will replace cookies by the end of next year as a means of tracking users on Google’s Chrome browser, the company said Tuesday. Topics will categorize people based on areas of interest, such as “talk radio” or “tennis.” The topics are defined based on the last three weeks of browsing. The new tool is designed to preserve privacy by giving a less specific log of websites people visit, while enabling advertisers to reach segmented groups of potential customers. Chrome users will be able to remove individual topics associated with them or turn off the tracking option entirely, Google said.