Pack away those tired cookie-crumbling metaphors until 2025, as Google has once again delayed the death of the third-party tracking cookie in its Chrome browser.
This is the third reprieve Google has given cookies since it first promised to phase them out in 2020. The next year, it pushed the date back to 2023 and then delayed it again to 2024.
In its latest postponement, Google said in a blog, “we envision proceeding with third-party cookie deprecation starting early next year.”
The decision to delay cookie deprecation has never entirely been in Google’s hands. The tech giant must work closely with the U.K.-based Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to ensure that Google’s tools to replace the cookie’s tracking and measurement capabilities aren’t anti-competitive. These tools are collectively called the Privacy Sandbox.
But these Privacy Sandbox proposals have been hit with complaints from other adtech companies, publishers, and ad agencies. Some claim the tools are difficult to operate, for instance, while others claim they don’t adequately replace the cookies’ multiple functions, or that they give too much power to Google.
Google justified its cookie delay by alluding to these issues and the need for the CMA to provide a thorough review of its tools.
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem,” Google said in its post. “It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”
Google seemed on its way to phasing out cookies earlier this year after it cut off access to 1% of cookies in January. However, how and when Google would phase out a greater percentage of cookies was never clear, multiple ad industry insiders said.
While many in the ad industry want Google to end the ambiguity and do away with cookies once and for all, regulators like the CMA have been open about their willingness to keep cookies in play.
“If we’re not satisfied we can resolve the concerns, [we can make changes] to effectively delay the implementation,” said Craig Jenkins, the CMA’s director of its digital markets unit at an IAB Tech Lab event last month.
The CMA isn’t the only regulatory agency wary of the Privacy Sandbox tools. The U.K.-based Information Commissioner’s Office had drafted a report saying the Privacy Sandbox could let advertisers identify consumers, reported the Wall Street Journal.
That is the very thing the Privacy Sandbox is supposed to prevent.
