Google is about to launch its big project to block third-party cookies in Chrome that many websites use to track your web activity for profit.
Starting January 4, Google will begin testing its new Tracking Protection feature that will limit website access to third-party cookies by default. At first, this will affect a very small subset of Chrome users, specifically 1% of users worldwide. Subsequently, Google plans to phase out the use of third-party cookies for all users in the second half of 2024.
If you’re randomly selected to try Tracking Protection, Google will warn you when opening Chrome on desktop or Android. If any issues are detected by Chrome while you browse, a prompt will appear asking if you want to temporarily re-enable third-party cookies for the site.
Google is working on a way to eliminate the need for cookies in Chrome since 2020, then integrated it into its Privacy Sandbox initiative. The general idea of the company is to relay anonymized browsing data from users to advertisers, who can in turn use APIs provided by Google to conduct their advertising activities in a way that better protects user privacy. The “Topics API” launched in July to developers must start testingand became available for Chrome users to try in September.
Google’s approach to cookieless advertising appears useful both to privacy-conscious users and to advertising activity in general, compared to other web browsers that take more siled approaches to blocking cross-site tracking . However, Google’s competitors and privacy advocates are not. fully convinced of its cookie replacement technology.
Meanwhile, regulators like the The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) monitors Google’s new tracking protection to ensure it doesn’t give the company an unfair advantage in selling its own ads. With that in mind, Google says it’s targeting the second half of 2024 to enable the feature globally in case it needs time to resolve “any remaining competition issues.”
