Chrome has finally announced plans to kill third-party cookies. It has been Nearly four years Since third-party cookies have been disabled in Firefox and Safari, Google, one of the world’s largest advertising companies, has been working to slow the death of the tracking cookie. Advertising companies use third-party cookies to track users across the web, and this web activity is used to show relevant ads to users. Now that Google’s alternative ad tracking system, the “Privacy Sandbox,” has been launched in Chrome, it’s finally ready to ditch the previous form of ad tracking. New schedule To kill third-party cookies is the second half of 2024.
Google’s blog post calls the beta “Tracking Protection” and says the first tests will begin on January 4, when 1 percent of Chrome users will get the feature. By the second half of 2024, the rollout should reach everyone on desktop Chrome and Android (Chrome on iOS is just a redesigned, non-viable Safari browser). The rollout comes with some new UI bits for Chrome, with Google saying: “If a site doesn’t work without third-party cookies and Chrome notices that you… Having problems– As if you refresh the page multiple times – we will prompt you with an option to temporarily re-enable third-party cookies for this website from the eye icon on the right side of your address bar. “Given that other browsers have been doing this for four years, it’s hard to imagine that many web admins aren’t ready for this.
Google says the offering is “subject to addressing any remaining competition concerns from the UK Competition and Markets Authority.” The key to Chrome’s privacy protection is that the world’s most popular browser (Google Chrome) integrates with the largest advertising platform on the web (Google Ads) and shuts down alternative tracking methods used by competing ad companies. So, some regulatory bodies are naturally interested in the whole process.
Google says its choice to offer this privacy feature four years after its competitors is a “responsible approach” to phasing out third-party cookies. This liability appears to be primarily about liability to Google shareholders since turning off tracking cookies was previously seen as an attack on Google’s business model. Google’s position as the world’s largest browser vendor has allowed it to delay the death of tracking cookies long enough to create an alternative tracking system, which it launched earlier this year in Chrome. With the advertising business secured, it is now acceptable to phase out cookies. So far, everything is going according to plan.
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