Google’s Privacy Sandbox Project to Maintain Approach to Blocking Third-Party Cookies in Chrome
Google’s vice-president, in charge of the Privacy Sandbox project, recently announced the decision to continue the established approach to blocking third-party cookies in Chrome. Third-party cookies, which are displayed when accessing domains different from the current page’s domain, will now only be blocked by default in “incognito” mode. The company plans to review the use of Privacy Sandbox technologies in its ecosystem and prepare a promotion plan in the coming months.
The decision was made as a result of changes in the Privacy Sandbox initiative since 2019, including accelerated technology promotion to protect confidentiality, implementation of user security methods, and updates in the regulatory framework governing the industry.
Last summer, Google changed course on completely discontinuing support for third-party cookies in Chrome. The plan to prompt users to confirm cookie usage on each site has been scrapped, and blocking will only occur with specific settings in the “Privacy and Security” section.
Third-party cookies are cookies displayed when accessing domains different from the current page’s domain. These cookies are commonly used for tracking user movements across various sites by advertising networks, web analytics widgets, and other systems. By blocking third-party cookies, Google hopes to enhance user privacy and security.
Google has advocated for the use of specialized APIs to address privacy concerns, such as fedcm (Federal Credential Management for combined identification services), private State tokens for user separation without identifiers, topics for grouping users by interests, protected audience for targeting and audience analysis, among others.
Despite Google’s efforts with Privacy Sandbox, the internet advertising industry has been reluctant to abandon tracking cookies. Critics argue that the methods replacing tracking cookies do not address all concerns and may introduce new risks, such as potential discrimination of users and hidden identification and tracking of user activities.