2024-07-24 20:07:12
Google’s original plan to block third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser has been canceled. The reasons and what will happen next.
After years of discussions, Google has scrapped a plan that would have made it more difficult for the advertising industry to track users across different websites. The Internet company originally wanted to exclude third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser by default. It announced this in 2020.
The reasons for this included the growing awareness of data security on the part of users and stricter government regulations. Strong criticism from the advertising industry has now been followed by a compromise: users should instead have the option of managing their cookie settings centrally for all browser usage, Google Vice President Anthony Chavez explained in a blog post on Monday.
Third-party cookies are – as the name suggests – not used by the visited site itself, but by a third-party provider, such as advertising service providers. They can use them to track users across multiple sites and create individual profiles in order to ultimately display suitable, personalized advertising content to them.
The use of third-party cookies has been criticized for years in terms of data protection. In 2018, the EU finally intervened. Since then, users have had to explicitly consent to the storage of cookies and their use for advertising purposes on websites and apps.
In Apple’s web browser Safari and Firefox, third-party cookies are blocked by default and can be activated by users. However, Google’s plans to do so have met with resistance not only from the advertising industry, but also from competition watchdogs.
British regulators have been investigating since 2021 whether the move could harm competition in digital advertising. Chrome has a market share of more than 60 percent among browsers. The fear was that the change could pull the rug out from under Google’s advertising competition – while making the Internet company’s own advertising tools more attractive.
The company said that Google would now present the proposal that Chrome users would first have to consent to the cookies to the relevant supervisory authorities, especially in the EU and the UK. Stephen Bonner of the British data protection authority ICO was already “disappointed”. “We believe that the abolition of third-party cookies would be a step forward for consumers.”