It has been noticed that Google delay phasing; its ambitious plan to block third-party tracking cookies on Google Chrome will be postponed until the second half of 2024. Google initially announced in early 2020 its plan to phase out support for third-party tracking cookies on Google Chrome. Google launched its much-anticipated alternative for third-party cookies last week, seven months after quitting plans for its previous cookie replacement, “Federated Learning of Cohorts.” It’s all puzzling.
GOOGLE’S FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT
Google first announced in 2020 its plan to phase down support for third-party tracking cookies, dubbed the Privacy Sandbox API testing program. “We expect the Privacy Sandbox APIs to be published and publicly available in Chrome by Q3 2023,” Anthony Chavez, VP, stated Wednesday. They expect to begin phasing away third-party cookies in the second half of 2024. The program aims to work with the ecosystem to provide privacy-preserving alternatives to third-party cookies on Google Chrome and cross-site monitoring.
Google has published trial versions of several new Privacy Sandbox APIs in Chrome for developers to explore over the last few months. Because of this, continuous Google delay phasing is going on. Google secured an agreement with the UK’s CMA earlier this year on how it will develop and deliver the Privacy Sandbox in Chrome globally. The most consistent comment we’ve gotten is that additional time is needed to test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before third-party Google cookies.
That’s why they are lengthening the testing timeframes for the Privacy Sandbox APIs before disabling third-party Cookies on Google Chrome. Developers will test these APIs, and Privacy Sandbox trials will be expanded to millions of users worldwide beginning in early August. In the remaining year and into 2023, Google will steadily extend the trial population.
THIRD-PARTY GOOGLE COOKIES
Third-party Google cookies options include identity solutions, contextual targeting, and Google’s Privacy Sandbox. Google launched its well-known option for third-party cookies on Google Chrome, named “Topics API,” last week, barely seven months after abandoning plans for its previous cookie replacement, “Federated Learning of Cohorts,” as it was colloquially known. Yes, it’s all extremely perplexing. Chrome is the most used browser, accounting for more than 63 per cent of the global market. Advertisers and publishers were worried that Google would change cookie tracking technology in Chrome.
Topics are only one component of Google’s significant Privacy Sandbox effort to eliminate third-party Google cookies. On the surface, it appears to be a step to increase user privacy. Marketers will be unable to follow consumers using those cookies on Google Chrome by 2023, partly because of Google’s phasing out of those trackers on Chrome since the notorious tracking technology has been controversial with the general public over the years. Businesses, enterprises, etc., have used Google cookies to monitor website visitors for years.
All in the name of gathering information, learning more about consumer behaviour to target them more precisely, and providing a better overall customer experience.
GOOGLE DELAY PHASING
Google said last year that it would discontinue support for such cookies in its Chrome browser by early 2022 once it had found out how to meet the demands of users, publishers, and advertisers and developed tools to facilitate workarounds. Google delay phasing now the deadline is June 2021, allowing the digital advertising sector more time to develop strategies for more privacy-conscious targeted ads. According to the revised timeframe, the corporation will not implement the move for another two years.
Following that, Google announced the new ‘Topics’ idea. The decision of Google delay phasing would primarily work by displaying a maximum of five interests of the specific user as they browse the internet every week, such as shopping and travel. The needed data will be abbreviated and given to the appropriate marketers without any vital information about the user. Notably, this would only display the parties the characteristics that the consumers find appealing and essential.
As much as the revelation of Google delay phasing is a boon for advertisers and partners working to solidify a plan for monitoring and measurement beyond the cookie, it also introduces ambiguity about when must achieve this readiness. Companies putting development resources into efforts like independent web IDs may suffer an extra setback because those alternatives aren’t needed in the short term as Google continues to delay phasing.
CONSEQUENCE OF GOOGLE DELAY PHASING
Since the Google delay phasing, the business has been testing several approaches for replacing these trackers on its browser for the past two years as the Google delay phasing anticipates that APIs for the Privacy Sandbox goal will be available in the third quarter of 2023. As a result of Google delay phasing, the search engine giant stated that it intends to completely phase out these cookies from Chrome by the second quarter of 2024.
Notably, the business was among the first to advocate for removing third-party trackers from browsers like Chrome. Apple Inc. has already released support for such trackers from its Safari browser, and Firefox is following suit. With many others taking similar removal actions, it is essential to remember that the Brave browser has never supported these third-party cookies.
