Google is once again delaying its plans to ban the use of third-party cookies from Chrome. The new deadline is the second half of 2024.
Google has been working on plans to ban third-party cookies from its Chrome browser, which tracks you across different websites. The tech giant originally wanted to complete it by 2022 but postponed that deadline last year. In a blog post, Anthony Chavez, VP of Privacy Sandbox at Google, explains that the company needs more time to test the technology it plans to deploy to replace those cookies.
The Privacy Sandbox is a reworked version of ‘FLoC’ (Federated Learning of Cohorts). This technology allows Google to sort users into a sort of anonymized basket based on what would interest them. That FLoC, however, encountered protest from both advertisers and privacy activists.
Third-party cookies can track users across different sites and are used to ‘personalize’ advertisements. As the world’s largest advertiser, Google benefits from somehow maintaining that personalization while also receiving demands from users to offer more privacy. As a result, FLoC met protests from activists, but the ad technology also attracted attention from governments, who wanted to investigate whether they favoured Google over competitors.
Chavez expects the Privacy Sandbox API to be launched by the third quarter of next year. If everything goes smoothly, the third-party cookies will disappear from Chrome by 2024.
