Google is halting a planned change that would have restricted tracking users across websites for targeted ads. After extensive testing and delays, the company decided not to disable third-party cookie tracking by default, as Safari and Firefox have done.
This modification was slated to reach Chrome users soon, despite concerns from competitors, regulators, and privacy advocates.
Instead, Chrome will now prompt users to “make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing,” according to Google Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez. This approach mirrors Apple’s app tracking opt-in, which reportedly cost social media platforms nearly $10 billion after its 2021 implementation.
Additionally, on Monday, the Google Ads team released a whitepaper presenting early test results of Privacy Sandbox technology, proposed as an alternative to cookie tracking. The tests showed that Google Display Ads had a 97% return on investment, which Ad Age described as strong. However, the effectiveness dropped for follow-up ads, with only a 55% recovery in spending for re-marketing audiences.
Critics of Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies and implement new ad-targeting technologies like FLoC or Topics API have raised concerns about potential privacy risks and the possibility of harming competition, benefiting Google’s advertising business unfairly.
In light of this news, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) stated that Chrome “will be introducing a user-choice prompt, allowing users to decide whether to keep third-party cookies.” Details on this new approach are sparse, as Google said it is “proposing” the change, and the CMA will accept comments on the matter for a few weeks.
The Movement for an Open Web, an ad industry group that filed the CMA complaint to block the Privacy Sandbox rollout, commented that this decision signifies Google’s acknowledgment that their plan to dominate the Open Web has failed. Co-founder James Rosewell stated that Google will continue to make Privacy Sandbox APIs available and add anti-IP tracking protection for Incognito Mode users, offering an additional layer of privacy.
