Google is hitting the brakes on its plan to eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome, marking a significant shift away from a years-long effort to reshape online advertising privacy. Third-party cookies, small data files stored by domains other than the one a user is visiting, are widely used for cross-site tracking and ad targeting.
The company confirmed today it will not proceed with a previously planned browser prompt that would have asked users to consent to the tracking technology’s phase-out. This effectively means the ubiquitous tracking cookies will continue to function within Chrome for the time being, maintaining a core mechanism used by the ad tech industry.
Reversal of Course Confirmed
This move represents an abrupt change from Google’s direction announced just last year. In July 2024, the company presented an updated strategy for retiring third-party cookies, a goal it had been working towards, albeit with multiple delays, under its Privacy Sandbox initiative – a program designed to develop privacy-preserving alternatives.
Public testing involving millions of users had started in early 2024, with the company previously aiming to complete the transition away from cookies in the latter half of that year. Anthony Chavez, Google’s VP overseeing the Privacy Sandbox, laid out the new position in an April 22 blog post: “We’ve made the decision to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies.” He added that control remains with users, stating, “Users can continue to choose the best option for themselves in Chrome’s Privacy and Security Settings.”
Regulatory and Industry Headwinds
Google attributes the decision to feedback indicating “it remains clear that there are divergent perspectives on making changes that could impact the availability of third-party cookies,” coupled with ongoing discussions with regulators, specifically naming “the U.K.’s competition and data privacy authorities.”
This explanation aligns with difficulties documented during the testing of Privacy Sandbox alternatives, which is relevant to understanding this reversal. Reports from earlier this year detailed technical challenges, particularly concerning attribution measurement.
Concerns were also raised early on, back in January 2024, about the potential impact of on-device processing required by alternatives like the Protected Audience API (which runs ad auctions locally using privacy-enhancing techniques like Fenced Frames) on device performance, battery life, and bandwidth.
At that time, expert commentary, such as from Dr. Lukasz Olejnik cited by Winbuzzer, suggested Protected Audience might align with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but practical hurdles remained.
Some testing participants noted the system’s 1:1 design clashed with the complex, multi-party infrastructure of modern ad tech, creating scalability problems, while publisher uptake was reportedly hesitant.
What’s Next for Privacy Sandbox?
The continuation of third-party cookies throws the future role of many Privacy Sandbox technologies into question. While the overall project is not dead – Google reiterated its plan to roll out IP Protection for Incognito users (a feature using proxies to obscure IP addresses) in the third quarter – the APIs designed specifically as cookie replacements now face an uncertain path.
Chavez acknowledged this, writing, “In light of this update, we understand that the Privacy Sandbox APIs may have a different role to play in supporting the ecosystem.” He indicated Google will now re-engage with the industry “to gather feedback and share an updated roadmap for these technologies, including our future areas of investment, in the coming months,” according to the blog post.
The immediate outcome, however, is that the tracking technology Google sought to replace via efforts documented on its own developer pages will persist in its dominant browser.
