Google announced on Monday that it will pull the brakes on phasing out the use of third-party cookies on its Chrome browser because of concerns from regulators, competitors, and privacy advocates, the tech giant said in a Privacy Sandbox post. Instead, Google will be going in a different direction that will let users choose how they interact with third-party cookies.
Blocking third-party cookies would have presented a hurdle for remarketing, which lets companies serve you ads based on your previous activity around the web.
Google’s Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez mentions that they will be “proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time. We’re discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”
Google claims that it’ll add anti-IP tracking protection and continue to make Privacy Sandbox APIs available. The post also said that the project needs significant work by various participants and would have a massive impact on the online advertising market in general. Unfortunately, it looks like Chrome won’t be joining Firefox and Safari in removing third-party cookies by default despite recognizing the need to do so. The original announcement came in 2020, when Google stated that it would block third-party cookies by default starting in 2024. There was even a test run completed in January of 2024 where 1% of Chrome users had third-party cookies blocked by default.
The about-face behavior may have to do with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority’s concerns that the Google project would favor its own business over the competition. Moreover, the issues with the remarketing attempt are another possible reason for the change of mind since it revealed a performance drop when using these follow-up ads.
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