Google cancels plans to remove cookies for advertisers

In 2020, Google said it would end support for these cookies by early 2022, once it had figured out how to meet the needs of users, publishers, and advertisers and offered tools to facilitate workarounds.

To do this, Google launched its “Privacy Sandbox” initiative to find a solution that protects user privacy and allows content to remain freely available on the open web.

Google said in January that it was “extremely confident” about progressing its proposals to replace cookies, which included “federated cohort learning,” which would essentially group people into groups based on similar browsing behaviors, meaning only “cohort identifiers” and not individual user identifiers would be used to target them.

But in June 2021, Google pushed back the timeline, giving the digital advertising industry more time to refine its plans for more privacy-friendly targeted ads. Then, in 2022, the company said feedback showed advertisers needed more time to transition to Google’s cookie replacement, as some pushed back, saying it would have a significant impact on their businesses.

In a blog post published Monday, the company said it received feedback from both advertisers and regulators that informed its latest decision to roll back plans to remove third-party cookies from its browser.

The company said that through testing, it realized the transition required “significant work from many participants” and would impact publishers, advertisers and virtually anyone involved in online advertising.

“Instead of removing third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that allows users to make an informed choice that applies to all of their web browsing, and they can adjust that choice at any time,” wrote Anthony Chavez, vice president of Privacy Sandbox. “We are discussing this new path with regulators and engaging with industry as it rolls out.”