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Google announced today that it will no longer be doing something it has been considering and refining for quite some time.
Most people who just use the Chrome browser and don’t develop for it or try to serve ads areA new path for privacy sandboxes on the web” In simple terms, Google had a way. First published in January 2020aiming to bring it on parity with Safari, Firefox, and many others by disabling third-party (i.e. tracking) cookies in the most used browser on the planet. Google has proposed several alternatives to cookies that track users from page to page, all while constantly touting the space heater we saw three days ago. Each of these methods has met with varying degrees of resistance from privacy and open web advocates, trade regulators, and the advertising industry.
So, rather than turning off third-party cookies by default and implementing a new solution within the Privacy Sandbox, Chrome will “introduce a new experience” that lets users choose their tracking preferences when they update or use Chrome for the first time. Google will also continue to develop the Privacy Sandbox API, but in a way that is aware of “the impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising.” Google also made sure to note that it is “in discussions with regulators about this new direction.”
Why now? What does it actually mean? Let’s look back at Google’s efforts over the past four and a half years to replace the third-party cookie without seriously threatening its position as the world’s largest ad provider.
2017-2022: FLoC or “What if machines, not cookies, track you?”
The big push to stop Google probably started at Apple’s headquarters. In the fall of 2017, Apple put a 24-hour limit on ad targeting cookies in Safari, the default browser on Macs and iOS devices. I sent a sternly worded letter They oppose the change, saying it will “create a gap between brands and customers” and make ads “less general, timely and useful.”
By summer 2019, Firefox It just blocks tracking cookies by defaultGoogle Most of that funding Through online advertising, A different and broader discussion “We are against deleting third-party cookies. In other words, trackers will track you, and if you don’t provide a proper way to do so, they will track you in a dirty way, by fingerprinting your browser based on version numbers, fonts, screen size, and other identifiers. Google said it has machine learning that can tell when you’re being tracked.” good Share your browsing habits. For example:
New Technologies Federated Learning It shows that it’s possible for your browser to prevent you from revealing that you’re a member of a group that likes Beyoncé and sweater vests until you’re sure the group has thousands of members.
January 2020, Google has changed its stance “Alongside third-party cookies” has been changed to “instead of third-party cookies.” Chrome Engineering Director Justin Hsu wrote:Building a more private web: The path to eliminating third-party cookies” He suggested that widespread support for Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox tool could lead to the elimination of third-party cookies altogether. Privacy advocate Ben Adida called the move “effective” and a “big deal.” Schuh wrote at the time that feedback from the W3C and other groups “gives us confidence that a solution in this space will work.”
An explanatory graphic from Google about FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts).
As Google develops alternatives to third-party cookies, the road gets more complicated and the terrain more dangerous. The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls Google’s FLoC, or “federated learning of cohorts,” which allows Chrome to build machine learning profiles of sites and ads, “a very dangerous move.”Terrible ideaThe EFF joins Mozilla, Apple, WordPress, DuckDuckGo, and many browsers based on Chrome’s core Chromium code. Opposed or not involved in FLoCGoogle fought back Testing FLOC until late 2022 We will remove third-party cookies (and implement FLoC) by mid-2023.
By early 2022, FLoC had no path forward. Google Pivoting to the Topics APIThis gives the user more control. Which topic (“rock music,” “cars and vehicles”) are sent to potential advertisers. This is certainly better than third-party cookies, which have mostly cryptic names and only offer users one privacy policy: block them or delete them all and lose a lot of login information.
