Google pivots, will not eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome

After repeatedly pushing back the deadline for phasing out third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser over the past few years, Google is changing course. Google tested the process of eliminating cookies for 1 percent of its users in January. But on Monday, Google announced that instead of scrapping third-party cookies, it will pursue what a company executive described as a new Chrome experience to allow internet users to make more informed choices about their engagement with cookies. The decision to opt-out of third party cookies is already available to some degree in Chrome.

Has Google tried to eliminate the use of cookies before? Google unveiled its Privacy Sandbox initiative in 2019, a project aimed at safeguarding user internet privacy. One of Privacy Sandbox’s initial goals was to make third-party cookies unnecessary, and to discontinue Chrome's facilitation of them. They had to push the project’s timeline back in 2021, 2022, and to early 2024. Now they have rejected the elimination of third-party cookies altogether, and are pursuing other internet privacy measures. Google presented its policy change to the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority on Monday.

Dig deeper: Listen to hosts Kelsey Reed and Jonathan Boes discuss big tech and privacy concerns on the Concurrently podcast.