On Tuesday, Google brought an end to a year’s worth of speculation over what its global prompt for third-party cookies might look like, by announcing that there won’t be one.
Five years after Google announced that third-party cookies would be phased out of Chrome within two years – and now in the midst of an antitrust trial that could force the divestment of Chrome – the tech giant has confirmed that cookies are here to stay, with no change to the consent mechanisms currently available to users.
But ad tech execs are divided on whether the announcement undoes years of hard work in building cookieless solutions and getting to grips with Google’s controversial Privacy Sandbox, or if the industry’s strides towards privacy are bigger than the comings and goings of third-party cookies.
VideoWeek heard from six ad tech executives on what the move means for Google, the future of identity, and the consumer.
Mateusz Jędrocha, Chief Product Officer, Adlook
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The past five years have been marked by shifting timelines, last-minute delays, and a lack of decisive communication. While the technical challenge of removing third-party cookies is significant, it’s hard to find many positives in how this process has been managed. Deadline-driven development has proven ineffective, and key technical issues within the Privacy Sandbox remain unresolved. Today’s announcement effectively resets the conversation to where it stood in 2019.
Introducing the Privacy Sandbox APIs meant overhauling the infrastructure of a multi-billion-dollar industry – requiring significant engineering resources and collaboration across the ad tech ecosystem. But despite the investment, the third-party cookies are still here, and the long-promised pivot to privacy-preserving alternatives remains just over the horizon.
Third-party cookies are only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Advertisers continue to face more pressing challenges, such as declining data quality and wasted media spend. Months of preparation for a future that has once again been deferred come at a real cost: not just in terms of engineering hours and time spent to understand Privacy Sandbox mechanics, but in lost opportunities to focus on performance, measurement, and ID-less environments that already exist.
Now, just days after Google was found guilty of anticompetitive behavior in its ad business and with Chrome’s consent mechanism staying unchanged, the real question isn’t just about privacy timelines – it’s whether the industry can continue to afford waiting on one platform to dictate the future. Perhaps it’s time to stop asking what Google will do next and start focusing on building new partnerships grounded in aligned incentives, open communication, and long-term collaboration.
Amelia Waddington, Global Chief Product Officer, Captify
This news isn’t surprising. Google likely don’t want to do anything that would potentially hurt their ads business if they are ultimately forced to sell Chrome. Sandbox worked because it was based on them owning Chrome and having complete control of the supply chain. If they don’t have Chrome, they will need cookies for targeting, just like everyone else.
Adam Schenkel, EVP of Global Platform Strategy and Operations, GumGum
Google’s decision to keep third-party cookies, now with no opt-out, undermines years of industry progress towards privacy and user control. At a time when consumers are more aware than ever of how they’re tracked online, doubling down on cookies sends the wrong message. The internet doesn’t have a targeting problem; it has a trust problem.
The solution isn’t clinging to outdated surveillance tactics that exploit personal data; it’s building new models and strategies that respect privacy and meet people in the right moment, with technology like contextual advertising and attention measurement. Brands should take this as a wake-up call to diversify their ad strategies now, before audience trust erodes further.
Nick Tiano, Chief Revenue Officer, Making Science
Google’s decision to forgo a new standalone third-party cookie prompt marks the de facto conclusion to the years-long deliberation over cookie deprecation. While a prompt could have hastened deprecation via user opt-outs, the approach presented significant regulatory risk over potential self-preferencing.
Instead, Google is emphasising enhanced user control through improved browser settings by investing in privacy-preserving technologies such as IP Protection. Although the future of the Privacy Sandbox APIs remains uncertain, there is still a world where they support advertising and measurement functions as third-party cookies and IP addresses become less reliable. All of the above may warrant a revisit in the case of a ruling on the forced sale of Chrome.
Jeremy Haft, Chief Revenue Officer, Digital Remedy
Consumer privacy should be a top industry priority, but Google is right to pause if technical gaps remain. For example, today’s brands and agencies expect flexible attribution models that deliver accurate, cross-channel insights into what’s driving performance. Until privacy solutions meet that standard, slowing down isn’t a setback, it’s a smart move to get it right.
Terry Hornsby, Executive Vice President & Founder, Mantis
Google’s decision not to roll out a standalone prompt for third-party cookies in Chrome is significant, but many in the industry have been preparing for multiple scenarios all along. The reality is, advancements in alternative targeting approaches shouldn’t go to waste just because cookies are sticking around longer than expected.
The industry has made substantial progress with alternative solutions that produce a more balanced ecosystem, where advertisers have the opportunity to blend approaches, extending beyond the current environment while still respecting the broader direction towards privacy.
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