Google cancels plans to kill off cookies for advertisers

After years of delay, Google says it will no longer cancel and replace third-party cookies — a practice long used by advertisers — for its internet browser Chrome.

Cookies are small pieces of code that websites deliver to a visitor’s browser and stick around as the person visits other sites. The practice has fueled much of the digital advertising ecosystem, providing the ability to track users across multiple sites to target ads.

In 2020, Google said it would end support for those cookies by early 2022 once it figured out how to address the needs of users, publishers and advertisers and come up with tools to ease workarounds.

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

Google said in January it was “extremely confident” about the progress of its proposals to replace cookies, which included “Federated Learning of Cohorts,” that would essentially put people into groups based on similar browsing behaviors, meaning that only “cohort IDs” and not individual user IDs would be used to target them.

But in June 2021, Google pushed back the timeline, giving the digital advertising industry more time to iron out plans for more privacy-conscious targeted ads. Then, in 2022, the company said feedback has shown that advertisers needed more time to transition to Google’s cookie replacement as some pushed back, claiming it would significantly impact their businesses.

In a blog post on Monday, the company said it has received feedback, from both advertisers and regulators, that informed its latest decision to cancel the plan to kill off third-party cookies in its browser.

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

“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,” wrote Anthony Chavez, VP of Privacy Sandbox. “We’re discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”