Google just announced that will postpone the disappearance of third-party cookies until the second half of 2024, practically three years later than originally planned.
the Mountain View giant explains that “Improving people’s privacy, while giving businesses the tools they need to succeed online, is vital to the future of the open web. That’s why we started the Privacy Sandbox initiative to help the ecosystem develop privacy-preserving alternatives to third-party cookies and other forms of cross-site tracking. In the last few months, we released test versions of several new Privacy Sandbox APIs in Chrome for developers to test.
Throughout this process, we’ve worked to refine our design proposals based on input from developers, publishers, marketers, and regulators through forums like the W3C, and earlier this year, we reached an agreement with the Authority. of Markets and Competition (CMA) of the . about how we developed and launched Privacy Sandbox in Chrome around the world.
The most consistent feedback we have received is the need for more time to evaluate and test new Privacy Sandbox technologies before we stop using third-party cookies in Chrome. These comments align with our commitment to the CMA to ensure that the Privacy Sandbox provides effective privacy-preserving technologies and that the industry has enough time to adopt these new solutions. This deliberate approach to third-party cookie transition ensures that the web can continue to thrive, without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or covert techniques such as fingerprinting.
For these reasons, we are expanding the test windows for the Privacy Sandbox APIs before disabling third-party cookies in Chrome.
In addition, Google shared a timeline, in which it shows the forecast of its next advances in this field. Thus, by the third quarter of 2023, Google expects to release the Privacy Sandbox APIs to be available in Chrome. “As developers adopt these APIs, we intend to start phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024. As always, you can find updated timelines and milestones on the Privacy Sandbox website».
As we said, it is not the first time that Google has delayed its plans in this field. In the summer of 2021, the Mountain View giant explained that «While there is considerable progress with this initiative, it is clear that more time is needed throughout the ecosystem to get it right« and do it to “a responsible rhythm”.
A considerable challenge
While it is true that Google not only online advertising but multiple industries such as search and browsers, the end of third-party cookies is a great challenge for her.
On the one hand, the more Google cuts the tracking of third-party cookies, more will hurt other advertising companies as your own dominance of ad space will increase, because we must not forget that of the users by a large margin of difference.
Nevertheless, The more you break into tracking their platforms, the more you will be accused of not protecting user privacy. No matter what you do, you will be the subject of heavy criticism, and not just from netizens but from regulators, advertisers, and publishers.
Initially, the idea was that Google would mark the end of third-party cookies through its federated cohort learning technology. This technology consisted of generating groups of people (cohorts) with similar interests, so that companies can approach them with related content. In this way, users will see their privacy protected by not receiving an individual approach but a group approach from the businesses. However, Google was faced with a serious problem: Floc’s technology was not compatible with the privacy policies in force in Europe
Thus, in January this year, Google . Google assured that it had taken into account the lessons learned and the comments of the users in relation to Floc to develop topics, a new targeted advertising system within its Privacy Sandbox initiative.
just like google «With Topics, the browser defines a series of themes, such as «fitness» or «travel», which represent your main interests for that week based on your browsing history. Themes are kept for three weeks only and old themes are removed. This process is done entirely on your device, without the intervention of any external server, including Google servers. Thus, for example, if one week you enter a website with content related to health, Google will include “health” in your topics, so you will receive ads related to that category.
Thus, the idea is that your browser learns about your interests as you browse the web. Google assures that at first they will be analyzed 300 themes, but the intention is gradually increase the amountalso ensures that these issues will not include sensitive categories such as gender or race.
Google will classify the sites you visit based on one of these 300 themes or topics. For sites that have not been categorized, a machine learning algorithm will provide an estimated topic. That way, when you land on a site that supports the Topics API for advertising purposes, the browser will share three topics that interest you: one among the most relevant for each of the last three weeks. The site may then share this information with its advertising partners to decide which ads to show you.
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