Following five years of industry upheaval since Google first announced its intention to kill off third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser, we’re now back to square one. A blog post released by the company today states that Google is no longer planning on introducing a global prompt for third-party cookies, meaning that for the foreseeable future, third-party cookies will operate on Chrome exactly as they currently do.
It’s less than a year since Google first revealed it was no longer planning to get rid of cookies entirely, an announcement which sparked celebration, bemusement, and frustration in different quarters of the industry. At the time Anthony Chavez, Google’s VP of Privacy Sandbox (its initiative for creating third-party cookie-free ad tools) said the tech giant instead planned to create a “new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing”.
Now however, Chavez says this is no longer the plan. “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 said in today’s blog post. “Users can continue to choose the best option for themselves in Chrome’s Privacy and Security Settings.”
Explaining the decision, Chavez hinted that Chrome had struggled to find a solution which kept all sides of the industry happy. “As we’ve engaged with the ecosystem, including publishers, developers, regulators, and the ads industry, it remains clear that there are divergent perspectives on making changes that could impact the availability of third-party cookies,” he said.
He added that the landscape which fostered Google’s initial decision has now changed dramatically. “For example, the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies has accelerated, new opportunities to safeguard and secure people’s browsing experiences with AI have emerged, and the regulatory landscape around the world has evolved considerably,” he said.
Cookiepocalypse averted
While last year’s announcement signalled a major U-turn, today’s announcement is perhaps even more significant for the future of third-party cookies.
We never got much detail from Google about what a “new experience in Chrome” would look like. Chavez described it at a conference earlier this year as “a one-time global prompt”, according to AdExchanger, but that’s about all the extra information we ever got.
From Google’s sparse statements on this new consent mechanism, it seemed that the company was essentially planning to ask users to choose up front whether they wanted to accept third-party cookies on all websites by default, or reject them by default. Chrome users can already choose to block third-party cookies, but they have to actively seek this option out within Chrome’s settings.
For marketers and publishers, it was never clear what the impact of this sort of mechanism would be. But it certainly looked like it had the potential to have a massive impact. Depending on the wording and presentation, an upfront choice presented to users akin to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency prompt could have led to high levels of cookie blocking on Chrome. And if, for example, Google’s new user prompt led to 70 percent of users to opt-out of third-party cookies, that would still have amounted to mass signal loss on the open web, even if it wasn’t a total blackout.
Certainty at last?
Today’s decision, therefore, brings an element of certainty at last. There will be no user prompt. There will be no sudden major shift in the availability of third-party cookies on Chrome. As far as Google is concerned, technologies and methodologies built on third-party cookies can continue to operate as they currently do.
That’s not to say that all uncertainty is cleared up. For a start, Chrome’s own position within Google hangs in the balance, as the US Justice Department argues in its antitrust trial focusing on Google Search that the company should be forced to divest Chrome.
The Privacy Sandbox also faces an uncertain future. In last year’s announcement, Chavez emphasised that the Sandbox would still have a significant role to play, particularly when it came to targeting any users who chose to opt-out of third-party cookies in the global prompt. Today, Chavez sounded less bullish on the Sandbox’s future.
“In light of this update, we understand that the Privacy Sandbox APIs may have a different role to play in supporting the ecosystem,” he said. “We’ll 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.”
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