I've been thinking that something like topics is the actual solution for advertising so I'm not surprised that Google is trying to own this idea. For instance,

I've been thinking that something like topics is the actual solution for advertising so I'm not surprised that Google is trying to own this idea. For instance, I think that if, by legislation, the publisher was allowed to send to the ad network three interest codes AND NO OTHER INFO, I'd be ok with that. I'd also be ok with a minor degree of localization (dma or metro). The publishers could pick their three codes for all their users or, if they had some way of distinguishing "Sports Fan" from "Gaming Fan" IN THEIR OWN DATA they could send that (e.g. reddit would know my top three codes based on my subscriptions). Then just eliminate tracking and monitoring, again by legislation. Of course the list would have to be short, general and non intrusive. In one fell swoop all the tracking cookies go away, advertisers get a single targeting method. The ad tech industry stops eating the world. Content becomes king again. Google being in control of the codes, using their trove to choose the codes (in a suitable non-transparent mannter) while also reserving all that data for their own use is a huge problem.