Google Ends Plans to Scrap Cookies from Chrome

Google yesterday announced that it is reversing plans to end third-party cookies in its Chrome browser after repeated delays over the past four years.

In 2020, Google announced plans to phase out support for cookies, cross-site tracking identifiers, fingerprinting, and similar methods of tracking consumers' web activities using its Chrome browser by 2022. As it worked to roll out alternatives to cookies, it pushed back the phase-out first to 2023, then to 2024, and in April it delayed it again to sometime in 2025.

In January, Google started testing what it called Tracking Protection and turned off cookies for just 1 percent of Chrome users, amounting to approximately 30 million users.

In explaining the dramatic—though not unexpected—course change, Google said the cookie deprecation "requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising," according to Anthony Chavez, Google's vice president in charge of Privacy Sandbox.

Instead of eliminating cookies, Google plans to "introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing," Chavez wrote in a blog post.

That new experience will include IP Protection, which would anonymize users' IP addresses, though that will not roll out until next year. Google is also looking to expand its Privacy Sandbox offering.

Google's latest move was not surprising to many in the digital advertising space, given the number of setbacks and the number of digital advertisers and regulators expressing concerns about Google's proposed replacements.

"Ultimately, Privacy Sandbox is still moving forward, and, bottom line, that means massive changes to audience data, media buying, and measurement in Chrome. Who cares if we deprecate the dessert or not, Privacy Sandbox has always been the main course," says Drew Stein, founder and CEO of Audigent, a data activation, curation and identity platform provider.

"The announcement amounts to not much more than a sleight of hand," he continues. "Google needs to meaningfully engage in fixing Privacy Sandbox instead of toying with cookie deprecation once again to distract from the main challenges created by its proposed sea changes in Chrome."

Digital data and adtech expert Aaron Grote, vice president of digital products at Stirista, says Google's announcement "is being largely misread in the initial frenzy of hot takes. When the dust settles, people will realize that Google did not announce that third-party cookies will be sticking around. Instead, Google announced that they are changing the way third-party cookies will be made unavailable. The new experience in Chrome that puts cookie choices in front of users in more direct ways will have the same net effect as a top-down deprecation and could even achieve that effect in a shorter timeframe.

"People will wake up a few days from now and realize that the fundamental dynamics have not changed and that advertisers and their agencies should pursue a diversified and cookieless suite of targeting strategies in order to grow their brands," Grote says.

“Google's decision to scrap its plans to phase out third-party cookies is a significant U-turn that offers marketers a reprieve but also underscores the dynamic nature of our industry. While this move might ease some immediate concerns, it should not deter us from continuing to innovate and prepare for a future where privacy is paramount," adds Carol Howley, chief marketing officer of Exclaimer, an email signature management solutions provider.

"In an era where consumers are increasingly aware of their data privacy, marketers need to embrace strategies that go beyond third-party cookies," she continues.

Howley instead advocates for marketers leveraging first-party data more effectively and exploring diversified tactics, such as content marketing, search, and paid campaigns, partnering with influencers, leveraging review sites, and email signature marketing. 

Executives at Lotame believe that with or without Google, the deprecation of cookies is inevitable. Already, Apple's Safari browser and Mozilla's Firefox browser have done away with cookies, and momentum is growing.

"Google may no longer be ending third-party cookies by its own hand, but the slow march of progress will still see [cookies] rendered obsolete sooner or later. Users and regulators are increasingly privacy-focused and, given cookies will be opt-in across the board, there will still be a need for other signals to fill the gaps, especially across channels where cookies are long gone or were never present to begin with," says Chris Hogg, chief revenue officer at Lotame. "The fate of third-party cookies will be as a small part of an ever-expanding array of data points, becoming less relevant over time as more privacy-first, platform-agnostic solutions evolve. No one that wishes to remain competitive should think they can take their foot off the pedal of first-party data collection and strategic data collaboration."

Alex Theriault, the company's chief growth officer, says "the choice is now in the hands of consumers, where it should have been all along. The overwhelming majority of consumers have indicated they prefer personalized advertising and free access to content, so it will be interesting to see how many opt-in to blocking third-party cookies."

"Google's recent announcement signals a shift in their roll-out approach rather than a return to the status quo. While empowering users with more control over their data is a positive move, the true impact will depend on the specifics of the implementation," adds Mateusz Jedrocha, chief product officer at Adlook. "We welcome the acknowledgment of continuous investment in the Privacy Sandbox, as it is a pivotal step toward enhancing user privacy across the open web. Improving its effectiveness is crucial for supporting the open web and offering a viable alternative to third-party cookies for the ad tech ecosystem."

While Google continues to try to figure things out, Forrester Research senior analysts Stephanie Liu and Mo Alibhai, in a joint blog post, are urging marketers to continue going forward toward a cookieless future and testing contextual targeting, more compelling creative, and different identity resolution tactics.

"Google may have killed all sense of urgency, but advertisers already have a significant portion of their audience operating in cookieless environments today," they said.

They also urged marketers to refine their data strategies, identifying "which data they need about consumers to build look-alike models, segments, and propensity scores," and then to lean on publishers for customer data.

"Third-party cookies were never the only way to know your customer. Publishers, too, know their customers, including their devices, browsers, and opt-in preferences. With seller-defined audiences, internal modeling capabilities, and supply-side platforms to help onboard and transact relevant identity tokens, publishers are ideally situated to help advertisers transition to a post-third-party cookie world," the Forrester analysts wrote further.