Google’s announcement of the end of third-party tracking cookies in Chrome by the end of 2024 caused quite a stir.
What a big surprise, certainly a relief for advertisers, when the Mountain View firm announced in July 2024 that it was abandoning its project.
Read the highlights here.
Third-party cookies deposited on users’ browsers are advertising tools enabling advertisers to retarget their ads, but also to measure media performance.
They therefore form part of their marketing strategies, enabling them to better analyze their target audience and generate more revenue.
But here’s the thing!
Third-party cookies are problematic, especially when it comes to confidentiality.
These cookies reveal an individual’s online habits, and the data can be manipulated by hackers.
It was partly for these reasons that Google was planning to remove third-party tracking cookies, notably from the Chrome browser.
A decision that was not well received by advertisers, the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
In their view, the plan could actually harm the online advertising sector, and make businesses even more dependent on Google’s advertising products.
Ambiguity persists around this decision
Although the giant Google has planned to eliminate third-party cookies by 2022 with the deployment of the Privacy Sandbox, it has still remained evasive about its objectives and alternatives.
Admittedly, this is no mean feat.
Google has acknowledged that this transition “requires a great deal of work”, particularly on the part of the various players involved in online advertising.
The U.S. company, for its part, needs to carry out more controls, particularly with regard to important consumer data.
This was certainly part of the reason behind Google’s decision to cancel the project, much to the relief of advertisers and the regret of the UK’s Information and Data Protection Authority (IOC).
However, changes are to be expected.
Google promises “A new experience in Chrome
Indeed, while Google has announced that it is abandoning its plans to remove third-party tracking cookies, it still plans to bring “a new experience” to Chrome.
The firm plans to offer users the option of allowing or disallowing third-party cookies with the Privacy Sandbox throughout their web browsing.
The new experience announced by Google remains unclear to this day.
However, the abandonment of third-party cookie deletion is a relief for advertisers, who depend to a large extent on this search engine, which enjoys a global market share of over 90%.
Thanks to online advertising alone, the company will have generated nearly $237 billion in revenues by 2023.
Reactions differ
This raises the question of whether this decision is in the “interests of advertisers before users’ privacy”, according to Lena Cohen of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Not everyone agrees with this unexpected change.
“We’re disappointed that Google has changed its plans,” says Stephen Bonner, one of the IOC’s leaders.
Deleting third-party cookies was indeed seen as a step forward by consumer and privacy protection associations.
Their biggest regret is certainly the absence of a concrete replacement solution.
Let’s not forget that competing browsers such as Firefox and Safari have already jumped the gun and put an end to third-party tracking cookies.
