Google abandons plan to phase out third-party cookies

In a bid to please everyone, Google has done the opposite

Google announced on Monday that its five-year project to phase out the use of the third-party cookies which track people around the internet has been ‘updated’

In a blog post on Monday, Anthony Chavez, VP of Google's Privacy Sandbox, revealed that, whilst Privacy Sandbox (a suite of APIs which would protect online privacy to the extent that users can't be tracked across apps) has the ‘potential' to enable an outcome which keeps developers, consumers, privacy advocates, publishers, advertisers and regulators reasonably happy, this transition requires ‘significant work.'

"In light of this, we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice," wrote Chavez. "Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they'd be able to adjust that choice at any time."

This means that the Privacy Sandbox APIs will co-exist alongside third-party cookies on Chrome for the foreseeable future, and so the onus is on the Chrome user to decide whether or not they switch on Privacy Sandbox or carry on as they are effectively being tracked around the internet.

Other browsers are available which block cross-site cookies by default – Safari and Firefox for example. Apple has recently launched an ad campaign with privacy as the central theme.

It's another hammer blow to the idea of the Open Web, says James Rosewell, co-founder of Movement for an Open Web (MOW).

"Their goal was to remove the interoperability that enabled businesses to work together without interference from monopolists, but a combination of regulatory and industry pressure has put paid to that."

It's intuitive that regulators might have been in favour of moves to limit the use of third-party cookies, but the CMA and other regulators were concerned about Privacy Sandbox, fearing it would lead to a lack of transparency and interoperability with other solutions reliant on third-party cookies, and therefore give Google an unfair advantage in online advertising. Needless to say, the digital advertising industry also had concerns, which led to a great deal of work to develop alternatives.

The CMA also wanted stronger commitments from Google in terms of collaboration with the industry, and was taking it's time to scrutinise Google's plans.

"We intervened and put in place commitments in 2022 because of concerns that Google's Privacy Sandbox proposals could distort competition by causing advertising spend to become even more concentrated on Google's ecosystem at the expense of its competitors," a CMA spokesperson explained.

These regulatory delays might well have been the death blow for Google's original plans.

Shortly after Google's Monday announcement, the CMA said that it was "considering the impact" of Google's change of direction.

On Tuesday afternoon, the ICO expressed regret that Google had put Privacy Sandbox on hold. Stephen Bonner, ICO Deputy Commissioner said:

"From the start of Google's Sandbox project in 2019, it has been our view that blocking third party cookies would be a positive step for consumers.

"The new plan set out by Google is a significant change and we will reflect on this new course of action when more detail is available.

"Our ambition to support the creation of a more privacy friendly internet continues. Despite Google's decision, we continue to encourage the digital advertising industry to move to more private alternatives to third party cookies - and not to resort to more opaque forms of tracking.

"We will monitor how the industry responds and consider regulatory action where systemic non-compliance is identified for all companies including Google."

This article was updated at 16.06 with the statement from the ICO.