Nethra Sailesh, Pune
Google announced on Monday that it will revoke its plan to discard third-party cookies on Chrome. The tech giants attested that they will introduce a new system focusing on user control over their data.
In 2020 Google announced that it would stop using third-party cookies on Chrome. They launched “Privacy Sandbox,” an initiative to protect user’s privacy and as well as give companies the leeway to build their digital business.
Under Privacy Sandbox, the proposal for FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) emerged as a possible solution. FLoC uses a “cohort ID” to group individuals according to their browsing history rather than individually tracking a person like third-part cookies.
This approach seemed to address everyone’s concerns, the advertisers and the users. The deadline for this project was pushed to 2022, delayed until 2023 and now has been put off in 2024. Times of India reports that this decision represents the company succumbing to the pressure from the advertising industry and facing other regulatory challenges.
Google is yet to disclose details about their new system. Anthony Chavez, the Vice President of Privacy Sandbox wrote that the new approach undertaken by Chrome is in discussion with industry experts and regulators. BBC reported that this potentially suggests not completely abandoning third-party cookies but rather making the system work in parallel. The UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA), has claimed that it will evaluate this new initiative to ensure it complies with privacy regulations.
This shocking move has received mixed reviews from users, advertisers and regulatory bodies. Lena Cohen, staff technologist at Electronic Frontier Statement claimed that this move shows Google’s commitment to profits over user privacy by continuing to use “the most pervasive tracking technology” aka third-party cookies.
The problem with third-party cookies is that they are placed onto a device and used mainly by advertisers to track a person’s online activity and history. This tracking takes place across other websites too.
First party cookies are currently presented as an alternative to third-party cookies. They are directly stored on the website. The website owner can use its data for analytical purposes or to enhance browsing experience. They do not cross track data across other websites and allow the users the choice to enable them.
All of Chrome’s top competitors, such as Safari, Firefox and Brave have some mechanism to partially or completely block cookies. Until further updates, we will have to see if Google’s new measures will prove to be a viable alternative.