Google announced it in 2020. First with a deadline for 2022 and then for the second half of this 2024. Then the browser Chromewhose market share is 60%, would stop admitting the cookies third party with the impact that this has on user privacy and on the Internet advertising business. But, in the end, these are not going anywhere and will continue to coexist with the user almost as they have until now. The company has announced that It won’t kill them and they can decide whether to continue using them or try another alternative..
Anthony Chavezvice president of Privacy Sandbox Google has published a statement stating that ‘instead of banishing third-party cookies, We will introduce a new experience in Chrome that will allow people to make an informed choice that will apply to their web browsing.and they will be able to adjust that choice at any time. We are discussing this new path with regulators and will collaborate with industry as we implement it‘.
The alternative to third-party cookies, although Chavez does not say it very clearly, will be Privacy Sandbox. Under this name, Google has developed and tested over the years several options for using those.
Third-party cookies are those that are sent to the user’s device from a domain that is not managed by the website being visitedbut by another entity that processes the data obtained through them. These cookies are usually used for behavioral analysis, advertising or integration with social networks and Websites often download hundreds and hundreds of them on each browser.
They are also considered a privacy risk and browsers such as Firefox and Safari They have been blocked by default for years. By default, Chrome only does this for incognito browsing, and blocking them completely requires changing the browser settings.
With Privacy Sandbox, The tracking work is now done by the browser which categorizes user activity, again, for advertising purposes and in theory with less movement of activity data. While Google still supports this approach, it acknowledges that Moving away from third-party cookies would require the cooperation of too many stakeholders and would likely have negative impacts on the advertising and publishing businesses.Chavez also notes that ‘Privacy Sandbox APIs will improve over time and as industry adoption increases.’