Google Scraps Plan To Get Rid Of Cookies Even As It Moves Forward With Alternative.

Google said Monday it is granting a reprieve to third-party cookies, which instead of being killed will remain functionable within Chrome browsers in 2025 and beyond. Google plans to keep the internet trackers available in Chrome, but the tech giant said it would develop options for consumers to decide if they want to accept them. 

The company initially announced its plans to end cookies back in 2019. While it has been delayed several times, the ad market had expected cookies to go away by the end of 2024. Google said it would phase out third-party cookies in Chrome during the second half of the year.

“We recognize this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising,” said Google VP Anthony Chavez. “In light of this, we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. 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,” he wrote in a blog post.

Digital media consultant Matthew Goldstein told the Wall Street Journal that he believes Google faced “insurmountable” pushback to dropping cookies. “Google realized they have to come up with a better plan,” he said.

Google is reiterating its “Privacy Sandbox” plans — an alternative ad tech pipeline for serving programmatic ads without cookies. But with cookies still functional, it’s unclear how much publishers and ad tech vendors will be motivated to invest in the Privacy Sandbox ecosystem. And going forward, users will allow Chrome users to block cookies in their settings.

But Chavez says early testing from ad tech companies, including Google, has indicated that the Privacy Sandbox APIs have the potential to achieve the same outcomes as cookies and that the overall performance using Privacy Sandbox APIs will improve over time as industry adoption increases. 

“We’re discussing this new path with regulators and will engage with the industry as we roll this out,” Chavez said.

Firefox and Safari have already phased out the third-party cookie, which are tracking codes that marketers place on the computer of a website visitor. Advertisers will still have some data at their fingertips though, as first-party cookies that track basic data about their own website users will still be available.