SoftwareBrowsersGoogle has changed its mind about dropping support for third-party cookies in Chrome, after years of trying to make it happenWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
SoftwareBrowsersGoogle has changed its mind about dropping support for third-party cookies in Chrome, after years of trying to make it happenWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Pixabay)

For a while, there was a moment when it looked like Google was going to do what appeared to be the right thing and depreciate support for ad-tracking third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. But after much deliberation with regulators, publishers, and members of the advertising industry, the decision is being dropped in favour of giving the end user the means to “make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing.”
Back in 2019, Googleannounced a long-term goalof making the web more private, via its Privacy Sandbox project. A few months later, it made the surprising statement that it intended to phase outsupport for third-party cookiesin Chrome. Now, four years later, Google has formally stated (via theRegister) that it’sno longer going to do thisand will give users the option to change whether their Chrome installation supports them.
The vice president of Google Privacy Sandbox, Anthony Chavez, wrote in the statement: “Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we 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.”
The issue was that Google wanted third-party cookies entirely dropped in favour of its closed Privacy Sandbox API and supporters of an ‘open web’ (along with those against the online ad industry) weren’t happy about this at all. TheCMA was especially concerned(pdf warning) that forcing millions of users into a system, developed without any regulatory scrutiny, would likely amount to an abuse of a dominant position.
Hence why Google has back-tracked on its pledge to drop third-party cookie support and instead give users the option to allow/block them, via a simple control in the browser, in much the same way that Apple and Mozilla do with Safari and Firefox.
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