Google on Monday abandoned plans to phase out third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome web browser, more than four years after introducing the option as part of a larger set of controversial proposals called the Privacy Sandbox.
“Rather than eliminating third-party cookies, we’re introducing a new experience in Chrome that gives users the ability to make informed choices that apply across their web browsing and adjust those choices at any time,” said Anthony Chavez, vice president of the effort.
“We are discussing this new avenue with regulators and will work with the industry as we roll it out.”
This significant shift in policy comes roughly three months after the company said it plans to remove third-party cookies early next year after multiple delays, and highlights the project’s checkered history.
While Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox stopped supporting third-party cookies since early 2020, Google has struggled to disable third-party cookies due to its important role as a web browser vendor and advertising platform.
The company’s idea of using a privacy sandbox to balance online privacy with an ad-supported internet has come under intense scrutiny from regulators, advertisers and privacy advocates, which have led to multiple redrawings of the contours of cookie-alternative technologies over the past few years.
Last month, Austrian privacy nonprofit noyb (not your business) said this simply transfers control from third parties to Google, and that it could still be used to track users without giving them the choice to consent in an informed and transparent way.
Apple, which introduced advanced tracking and fingerprinting protections in Safari, has criticized a key feature of the Privacy Sandbox: the Topics API, which classifies users’ interests based on their browsing history, creates a constantly changing list of predefined topics, and serves personalized ads.
“Users are not informed in advance of which topics Chrome has tagged or exposed to which parties,” Apple’s John Wilander said, noting that the technology could be used to fingerprint or re-identify users or profile their activity across sites.
Specifically, they pointed out an implementation loophole that could allow data brokers embedded in websites to periodically query the Topics API and combine it with other data points to create persistent profiles, capturing users’ changing interests over time.
“Now imagine what advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence could infer about you based on a combination of different interest signals,” Wilander says. “Once data brokers and trackers were able to compare and contrast large swaths of the population, what patterns would emerge?”
“We believe the Web should not expose such information between websites, and we believe browsers, or user agents, should not facilitate the collection or use of such data.”
The Privacy Sandbox also faces regulatory hurdles over concerns that the technology could give Google an unfair advantage in the digital advertising market, limiting competition and further complicating the implementation process.
The move is an admission from Google that getting the entire industry to agree on a single solution will be harder than it seems: The shift away from cookies “will require a significant effort from many parties and will impact publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising,” the company said.
The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which closely monitors reforms by the search giants, said it was assessing the impact of the new announcements.
“Instead of removing third-party cookies from Chrome, we will introduce a user choice prompt that will allow users to choose whether or not to keep third-party cookies,” the CMA said. “The CMA will now work closely with the (Information Commissioner’s Office) to carefully consider Google’s new approach to Privacy Sandbox.”
