Big Tech Ignores Browser Opt‑Outs

An independent audit of more than 7,000 popular California websites by webXray found that Google, Microsoft and Meta frequently ignored the Global Privacy Control (GPC) opt‑out signal and still set advertising cookies: webXray reports 87% failure for Google, 50% for Microsoft and 69% for Meta, and that 55% of sites set ad cookies despite opt‑out. The findings point to a measurable gap between consumer privacy signals and real network behaviour. — If accurate, this reveals a systemic enforcement gap where major platforms subvert user privacy preferences and could trigger large fines, legal challenges, and policy responses about how browsers, standards and regulators must interact.