Google says it needs more time to build and test its ostensibly privacy-preserving ad technology, touted as a “Privacy Sandbox.” So the ad business has delayed its previous plan to block privacy-stealing third-party cookies in Chrome until 2024.
Back in January 2020, the internet search giant announced its intention to phase out third-party cookie support by 2022 after cookie protections introduced by rival browser manufacturers amounted to a vote of no confidence in cookie-based tracking and lawmakers began to pay more attention to privacy and competition.
In the context of the web, cookies are files created by websites on the computers of their visitors. Third-party cookies are set to serve companies associated with the publisher of the website and, in addition to less undesirable uses, can be used to track web users as they visit different websites, potentially violating expectations of privacy.
Google recognizes the need to heed the call for online privacy, but remains determined to preserve its ability to target ads, which the ad giant selfishly insists is necessary to keep the internet free. And so Chocolate Factory is developing Chrome browser APIs like Topics and FLEDGE as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative “so that publishers and developers can provide free content and grow their businesses in a way that preserves privacy.”
In other words, Chrome will remove third-party cookies, but still provide mechanisms under the Privacy Sandbox brand for website owners and publishers to use to gain insight into netizens visiting their pages so they can be targeted with ads.
Things did not go according to plan. In June 2021, Google delayed the phasing out of cookies back to 2023 due to objections from ad tech competitors who raised competition concerns with regulatory agencies and due to problems in realizing its Privacy Sandbox vision.
The US megacorporation’s Federal Cohort Learning (FLoC) API, for example, failed to deliver the promised privacy. Researchers have discovered that it can be used to track people. So Google reworked its code and created a successor called Topics, which it began testing in April alongside the FLEDGE API. Other Privacy Sandbox APIs, such as the Fenced Frames API and the Federated Credential Management API, are also currently being evaluated in a browser testing process known as Initial Trials. In August, Google expects to make these APIs more widely available and continue testing next year.
Accustomed to developing web technologies at their own pace and leaving rival browser makers with little choice but to follow suit to maintain compatibility — a practice framed by Facebook as “move fast and break things” — Google is now moving cautiously and stopping , while seeking approval.
On Wednesday, Anthony Chavez, Google’s vice president of Privacy Sandbox, said developers, publishers, marketers and regulators had asked for more time to evaluate and test Privacy Sandbox technology before the company removed support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. . And having made commitments to the UK Competition and Markets Authority that it will engage with stakeholders, Google has reason to comply.
“This deliberate approach to transitioning away from third-party cookies ensures that the Web can continue to thrive without relying on cross-site tracking identifiers or hidden techniques like fingerprinting,” Chavez said.
Chavez said the Privacy Sandbox APIs should be generally available in Chrome by the third quarter of 2023. “As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to begin removing third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024.” “, he said.
The Register asked Google if the cookie removal date could slip again, and a spokesperson said the company had nothing to add beyond its blog post. However, the Chocolate Factory Privacy Sandbox FAQ acknowledges that the dates posted on its timeline may change.
In an email to The Register, Pete Snyder, senior director of privacy at rival browser maker Brave Software, dismissed Google’s efforts to redesign targeted advertising for the post-cookie era.
“For more than two years, Google has told the Web a false but comforting story: that tracking-based ad companies can continue to operate largely as they are, and that the changes the Web needs are minor and incremental,” Snyder said. “Privacy-minded companies, led by Brave, have been shouting the opposite: that real privacy requires fundamental change, and that Privacy Sandbox is not it.”
“In short, Google have created an intractable dilemma for themselves; Google is addicted to tracking, but Google also knows that web tracking is on the way out for both legal and ethical reasons. Unfortunately, instead of making the necessary hard changes to become truly private, Google has again (and again) kicked the can down the road. The result is that Google continues to knowingly and intentionally subject its users to gross privacy harm.” ®
Add Comment