Google unveiled through a publication quarterly report about the current status of "Privacy Sandbox for the Web" and in it some important changes have been announced in which Google has basically readjusted its plan again to stop supporting third-party cookies in its "Google Chrome" web browser.
Third-party cookies are used to track users' movements between sites, such as in advertising networks, social media widgets and web analytics systems.
The changes related to cookies are being promoted through the Privacy Sandbox initiative, which seeks to balance user privacy with the tracking needs of advertising networks and sites. However, attempts to introduce alternatives to tracking cookies in Chrome have faced resistance and criticism due to concerns about potential risks such as user discrimination and the creation of new forms of hidden user tracking.
New date for deleting cookies
In the report includes an update on the schedule for the progressive elimination of third-party cookies in Chrome and it is revealed that the original plan that had been proposed cannot be carried out.
The UKirs Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Google publish quarterly reports to update the ecosystem on the latest status of Privacy Sandbox for the Web. As part of Google's Q1 2024 report, we will include the following update on the timeline for phasing out third-party Chrome cookies in the April 26 report.
And, Support for third-party cookies was originally planned to end in 2022, but it was postponed several times, first to mid-2023 and then to the end of 2024, since In January, Chrome began restricting access to cookies of third parties for 1% of users worldwide and that percentage was expected to gradually increase until covering 100% of users.
It is mentioned that the recent delay is due to the constant problems of opinions from the industry, regulators and developers and the lack of preparation in the ecosystem, it was decided not to deactivate compatibility with third-party cookies in 2024, postponing the date later. A tentative date would be for next year.
Furthermore, the importance of the CMA has the time necessary to review all evidence, including the results of tests carried out by market participants at the request of the CMA and for the time being, websites and services have been given additional time to migrate from dependencies on third-party cookies. It is mentioned that the deadline is until December 27, 2024 and currently instead the use of the following APIs is proposed as alternatives to tracking cookies:
- Federated Credential Management (FedCM): Allows you to create unified identity services that guarantee privacy and work without third-party cookies.
- Private State Tokens: They allow different users to be separated without using cross-site identifiers and to transmit user identity information between different contexts.
- Topics (replaces FLoC API): Provides the ability to define categories of user interests, which can be used to identify groups of users with similar interests without identifying individual users through tracking cookies. Interest is calculated based on the user's browsing activity and stored on the user's device.
- Protected Audience: It solves retargeting problems and allows you to evaluate your own audience, working with users who have visited the site previously.
- Attribution Reporting: It allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising in terms of transitions and conversions (purchases on the site after a transition).
- Storage Access API: Used to request user permissions to access cookie storage if third-party cookies are blocked by default.
These APIs offer alternatives that address privacy and security concerns associated with third-party cookie tracking, allowing ad networks and websites to obtain relevant information without compromising user privacy.
If you are interested in knowing more about it, you can check the details in the following link.