Under pressure, Google halts third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome

Google is abandoning its plan to deprecate third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, the latest development in a five-year saga of preparation, delays, and mounting industry criticism and regulatory pressure.

Google’s VP of Privacy Sandbox, Anthony Chavez, wrote in a blog post on Monday that instead of deprecating third-party cookies, the company would “introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”

“We expect that overall performance using Privacy Sandbox APIs will improve over time as industry adoption increases,” Chavez wrote. “At the same time, we recognize this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising.”

Regulators and industry insiders were swift to respond, lighting up social media platforms, press inboxes, and private messages with mild surprise, relief, and speculation about what’s next for an industry bracing for — and in some cases embracing — change.

Privacy regulators, including the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the U.K.’s Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), said they would work together to consider Google’s new plan. The CMA is postponing its quarterly report, originally due out this month, until Aug. 12.

James Rosewell, co-founder of the Movement for an Open Web, says that the heel turn “is a clear admission by Google that their plan to enclose the open web has failed.”

“We’ve long called for Privacy Sandbox to be allowed to compete on its merits. If advertisers prefer its approach, and consumers value the alleged privacy benefits, then it will be universally adopted,” Rosewell says. “What wasn’t acceptable was for a solution like this to be forced on the market whilst removing any alternative choices.”

Leveling the playing field

Details were sparse on Monday about how “user choice” will play out in Chrome’s new approach to third-party cookies. Anthony Katsur, CEO of the IAB Tech Lab, says advertisers need more information. "The industry will likely end up in the same place,” he tells The Current, referring to a world without cookies. “We're just taking a different, potentially longer route to get there."

The tech giant's announcement comes after scrutiny from some corners of the advertising industry and governing bodies over Privacy Sandbox, Google’s privacy tool originally meant to replace cookies. At the heart of the issue is the need for identity solutions that create a fair playing field for users, publishers, advertisers and tech companies.

As InMarket’s Chief Product Officer Joshua Koran put it, “This is far from over.”

“This has little to do with cookies, but instead the architecture of open standards versus proprietary solutions for the web," he says. “Neutral standards rather than only proprietary APIs are required for the diversity of solutions that support people’s ad-funded access to a plurality of media [that] our data-driven society requires.”

Justin Wohl, chief revenue officer at Snopes, says cookie deprecation could have given Google an advantage.

“There is too much pressure on Google, from the CMA and their U.S.- based suits, to rock the boat and force cookie deprecation, which arguably benefits them, via Privacy Sandbox and their ad ecosystem,” he says.

That sentiment echoed across LinkedIn.

One question came up consistently in The Current’s interviews: Will Google take a page from Apple’s playbook? When Apple introduced App Tracking Transparency (ATT) as a privacy measure in 2020, it sidestepped the role of privacy-decider by handing the choice to users. But the feature led to blanket op-outs rather than case-by-case decisions.

Some called on Google to differentiate itself from Apple.

“Will Google ask consumers if they want to be tracked publisher by publisher, or will Google paint with the wide brush that Apple did with ATT and MPP and effectively ‘lead the witness’ to opting out of everything as a blanket opt-out?” says Matt Keiser, CEO of LiveIntent.

“The former approach speaks to a company trying to help publishers under threat by the ecosystem. The latter approach is embodying that threat by the ecosystem,” says Keiser.

Recounting Google’s deprecation timeline

Google stunned the industry in 2019 when it said it would pull support for third-party cookies on its Chrome browser. For years after, it warned advertisers to prepare while simultaneously extending the timeline. Most recently, it planned to phase them out in 2025.

But in February, after Google introduced its Privacy Sandbox as a solution for advertisers and publishers, The IAB Tech Lab published a critical report declaring that Sandbox “may limit the industry’s ability to deliver relevant, effective advertising, placing smaller media companies and brands at a significant competitive disadvantage.”

The company delayed the plan for a third time in April.

The IAB voiced support Monday for halting deprecation and encouraged the industry to keep working toward a cookieless future.

“These changes give Chrome more time to work with the advertising ecosystem to develop a better Privacy Sandbox that works for everyone versus their initial approach, which, until recently, was developed with minimal industry input,” Katsur says. “The IAB Tech Lab believes the industry should continue working toward a vision of a privacy-centric world without third-party cookies."

Rosewell, the Movement for an Open Web co-founder, cautioned that the cookie saga could continue.

“There’s nothing in the announcement that prevents Google [from] doing this all over again in the future,” he says. “Regulators will need to ensure there are legally binding commitments on Google to guarantee interoperability in perpetuity.”

A new identity

The industry has been building new identity solutions like Unified ID 2.0 with interoperability, transparency and choice at the fore. Jason Hartley, the head of media innovation at PMG, one of the-fastest growing digital agencies, says that progress will continue regardless of cookies’ fate.

"While this decision is somewhat surprising, it reflects the challenge of replacing a key advertising component,” he tells The Current. “While cookies are not going away in the short term, continuing to explore alternative data strategies continues to be essential for long-term success as to not be reliant on any single data source.”

Wohl believes the industry will move on from cookies as privacy innovation continues, making cookie-based identity graphs less valuable. Snopes relies on alternative identifiers, in part because Safari and Firefox still own around half of publisher traffic.

“The opportunity is there to improve eCPMs on cookieless inventory, and with steady attrition of cookied users in Chrome through opt-out messaging, these solutions will have their day,” Wohl says.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.