Google has scrapped its earlier plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome browser by the end of this year. The Alphabet company said Monday that instead of deprecating cookies, it will give users more controls that will help them make more informed choices.
“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,” Anthony Chavez, VP, Privacy Sandbox at Google said in a blog post.
In May 2023, Google announced that it will phase out third party cookies for 1% of Chrome users by Q1 2024 and eventually disable it for all users by the second half of 2024. The phased roll out was meant to give developers more time to adapt to the Privacy Sandbox API (application programming interface), which is expected to replace the cookies based ad tracking. It was released for public testing in September 2023.
Chavez reaffirmed Google’s commitment to the Privacy Sandbox initiative while adding that a smooth transition is required to onboard advertisers and publishers. He said that testing by Google and ad tech companies have shown promising results and the overall performance using Privacy Sandbox APIs will also improve as industry adoption increases.
“At the same time, we recognize this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising,” he added.
Chavez further said that Google is discussing this new approach with regulators and is looking to engage with the industry going forward.
Third-party cookies are files that are created by websites and used by advertisers to track browsing activity of users across different websites and show them more targeted ads. However, the practice has drawn a lot of backlash from privacy advocates and regulators in several countries, forcing Google to explore less intrusive ways to help advertisers show personalized ads.
Privacy Sandbox is expected to make Chrome more privacy friendly for its users by replacing third party cookies with alternative solutions that will allow publishers and advertisers to show relevant ads and measure their effectiveness without using intrusive tracking methods.
As part of the Privacy Sandbox, Google has tested several solutions. In 2019, it proposed FLoC or federated learning of cohorts. Though it was less problematic than third party cookies it was found that FLoC could still be used to identify users through fingerprinting. It was also using a clustering algorithm to club people on the basis of race, sexual orientation, or disability.
Google later replaced it with Topics API, which will show ads based on interest-based categories.
In addition to pressure from privacy groups and online regulators, Google was also forced to rethink its advertising practices by its rivals such as Apple that have taken a tougher stand on intrusive advertising practices. In 2021, Apple had released its app tracking transparency tool that requires developers to first seek consent from users before they can track their activity across other apps and websites.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms claimed in 2022 that Apple’s privacy changes caused a major dent in Facebook’s core business of targeted advertisements.
Online ads is also Google’s biggest source of revenue. Ads from Google Search and other properties accounted for 56% of the revenue in 2023. This does not include Youtube Ads and Google Network Ads.
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