Google has shelved plans to remove third-party cookies, signaling a shift in its privacy policy.
The search giant has been working on ways to improve online privacy in its Chrome browser for a number of years and in 2020 announced it would get rid of third-party cookies, which track user behavior across multiple sites so advertisers can target ads to those consumers. But since then it pushed back the deadline for removal multiple times.
Google set up its Privacy Sandbox almost five years ago to develop new solutions for online privacy, but in a blog post yesterday, its vice president Anthony Chavez said while it had made progress, "this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising."
So rather than eliminating third-party cookies, Chavez wrote that the company is instead proposing an "updated approach."
"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."
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In recent years travel companies have been scrambling to move to first party data or find other ways to glean data in preparation for the removal of third-party cookies since Google first announced the plan in early 2020.
But some question if the latest news if decisions related to cookies really matter anymore: Axios recently quoted Joe Root, CEO of online advertising specialist Permutive, as saying: "70% of the internet doesn't have a third-party cookie. Google can make a change, but like 40% of [Chrome users] have already disabled cookies."
From the initial announcement in 2020, the move was pushed out to 2023 and then this year. Then in April, a blog post said it would not be able to remove cookies by the end of 2024 because of "ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers."
In yesterday's post Chavez added that Google is now discussing the new approach with regulators including the Competition and Markets Authority in the United Kingdom.
He also said that as the plan develops developers should have "privacy-preserving alternatives" adding that the Privacy Sandbox would continue to make available and invest in its APIs.