When it comes to the subject of third-party cookies withdrawal in Google Chrome, it’s worth keeping an eye on the ball. Ultimately, these cookies were crucial to online advertising, as they allowed tracking user activities, and in consequence, they were served with personalized ads. However, with the end of third-party cookies for all Chrome users seeming inevitable, it’s essential to keep up with the latest news. What do we know about an upcoming cookieless world in the second quarter of 2024? Additionally, please read till the end to discover what happened in the third quarter of that year!
- As already announced in 2020, Google plans to withdraw all third-party cookies. Now, we know that it has been postponed again, and the third-party withdrawal in Chrome will probably take place at the beginning of 2025. The Privacy Sandbox initiative has the task of mitigating any negative consequences that may arise from this change. A deprecation of third-party cookies will become a reality only if all remaining problems reported by the British CMA (The Competition and Markets Authority) are resolved;
- For now, we are in the first phase of experiments, where only 1% of browsers experienced third-party cookie phase-out;
- Randomly chosen browsers face such cookie withdrawals. Any affected user will be notified.
What is Privacy Sandbox?
The aim of Privacy Sandbox, a solution developed by Google, is to facilitate the shift from the prevalent use of third-party cookies in Chrome to eventually eliminating them altogether. Additionally, the secondary goal is to minimize cross-site and cross-app tracking, as well as fingerprinting (because fingerprints – traces of the user, can be utilized for tracking users across sites). Designers of the solution want to safeguard users’ privacy but, at the same time, not hurt advertisers and, in consequence, publishers’ interests. No wonder, as many of them raised concerns about potential revenue drops due to the feared negative impact of the restriction and subsequent complete withdrawal of third-party cookies.
Privacy Sandbox can assist publishers in entering the cookieless world thanks to solutions, such as:
- Differential privacy, which is a system that makes it possible to uncover behavior patterns without disclosing private information concerning individual users;
- K-anonymity is a privacy concept that helps to measure anonymity within a dataset;
- On-device processing, which enables the calculations on a user’s device (like on a tablet or mobile phone).
Winds of change, once more
Google’s evolving approach to third-party cookies in Chrome highlights the complexity of online privacy. Initially aiming for removal, the Privacy Sandbox project faced delays and opposition, finally leading Google to pause the initial plan for phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in July 2024. It’s said that the company will introduce a Chrome feature that allows users to make informed decisions about their data usage and adjust their settings as needed. Although Google has now withdrawn its plans, the general bad perception of third-party cookies in the industry has not changed, and we don’t know what lies ahead. Therefore, it’s worth staying patient and keeping up with all the latest news from Google. We will keep you updated on all changes on our blog. Stay tuned!
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