After a lot of progress with Privacy Sandbox, Google has decided to roll back the most privacy-oriented aspect against third-party cookies. As recently revealed, Google plans to change the user experience as the Chrome browser allows third-party cookies instead of blocking them completely.
Google Chrome introduces changes to the privacy sandbox to allow cookies
According to a recent after from Anthony Chavez, VP Privacy Sandbox at Google, the tech giant plans to make some changes to the basic functionality of Privacy Sandbox. While the feature will continue to work as intended, it will be a little more flexible regarding third-party cookies in the future.
Google first launched the Privacy Sandbox feature in 2022 and rolled it out with Android 13. The feature aimed to prevent invasive cookie tracking for Chrome users, ensuring a better browsing experience. It also aimed to prevent third-party data sharing and ID sharing between apps to protect users’ privacy from advertisers.
This move made Google seem like a privacy champion for its users. However, the recently announced changes indicate Google’s preference over advertisers.
As explained, the tech giant received feedback from various online advertising industry stakeholders, with Google deciding to stop blocking third-party cookies. Instead, Google plans to customize the Chrome experience for users, notifying them about cookies and web browsing.
We propose a new approach that increases choice for the user. Rather than deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies while browsing the web, and change that choice at any time.
So instead of experiencing cookie blocking by default, users may now witness cookie behavior pop-ups, forcing them to decide how they want to browse.
Chrome will offer IP protection
For now, it remains unclear how Google will implement this method as the issue is currently under discussion and has yet to be rolled out.
Nevertheless, what remains clear is that the advertising industry has seemingly won this uphill battle with Google.
However, this is not a loss for users either, as Google also has plans to roll this out IP protection in Chrome (as previously announced). Users can experience this privacy in incognito browsing mode, where the browser masks users’ IP addresses with a privacy proxy. This feature also prevents network intermediaries from accessing the content shared between the client and the destination origin.
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