Google Moves Forward with Removal of Cookies

In early January, Google started to roll out the removal of third-party cookies for its Google Chrome users, with the goal to eliminate them completely before the end of 2024.

The testing phase of its Tracking Protection feature will affect 1% of Chrome users. Participants are randomly selected and informed via push notification when they use Google Chrome on desktop or Android. Tracking Protection will “limit cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default.”

Google notes, however, that should a site have repeated browser issues, the user will have the option to temporarily re-enable third-party cookies.

This effort is part of a wider initiative called the Privacy Sandbox, which is designed to “create technologies that both protect people’s privacy online and give companies and developers tools to build thriving digital businesses.”

Google has been working since 2020 to remove third-party cookies to reduce “cross-site and cross-app tracking.” Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari browsers have already made the change. Google introduced guidelines to help businesses adapt to this new initiative. Some companies, however, say Google has not provided enough time and support to manage this change.

Third-party cookies, the technology that allows websites to log and track activity of users cross-site, have been instrumental in the $600 billion online-ad industry and removing them after having existed for more than 30 years is a significant change. It is at the heart of how advertisers today target users with relevant ads.

However, the use of third-party cookies raises privacy concerns, with advocates of consumer privacy warning that cookies “can be used to compile detailed profiles, including sensitive information such as a person’s medical history.”

Removing third-party cookies, while beneficial for data privacy reasons, risks negatively impacting the financial results of both advertisers and ad-supported websites while potentially favoring Google.

In return, Google has promised to not give “any preferential treatment to the company’s own products as part of an agreement with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority” and will apply its practices globally. The CMA is overseeing the plans to eliminate cookies and has the power to veto Google’s plans.

Google’s Anthony Chavez, VP for Privacy Sandbox, says, “With Tracking Protection, Privacy Sandbox and all of the features we launch in Chrome, we’ll continue to work to create a web that’s more private than ever, and universally accessible to everyone.”