Listen to the audio version of the article
Saying goodbye to cookies will once again take longer than expected. The online advertising market – 600 billion dollars a year – does not seem to be able to do without these small files tracking our browsing so easily.
Google has just announced, for the umpteenth time, a postponement of the ban on cookies in its Chrome browser, which is the most popular in the world. It was supposed to happen at the end of 2024, now we will talk about it again at the beginning of 2025. Maybe: Google had set the first farewell for January 2020, then it was a continuous recognition that it was too early: both for the online advertising ecosystem and for the regulators .
The reason for this latest decision comes in particular from the English antitrust authorities. In a note published on its blog, Google stated that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) needs “sufficient time to review all the evidence, including industry test results” on the Privacy Sandbox, which are the technologies made available by Google to advertisers to replace cookies.
Only if the sandbox proves to be up to par will there be no damage to competition due to the death of cookies and then the authority will be able to give the green light.
In fact, it should be known that companies in the advertising sector have complained to Google and the CMA about the limits of the sandbox. Accused of failing to compensate for the functionality lost by cookies. They also fear that saying goodbye to cookies will only strengthen the position of Google, already super dominant in the market.
Google has so many services and so many registered accounts that it doesn’t need cookies to track users.
In particular we are talking about a specific type of cookie, called “third party” or tracking cookies: files that follow users on the internet. Advertisers use them for everything from targeting ads to measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
Apple and Mozilla have already blocked third-party cookies in their browsers, but it is the turning point in Chrome – used by two thirds of the world‘s users – that will make the difference; this is why it has been awaited and feared by advertisers for years.
As if that wasn’t enough, the UK privacy regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), also intervened: it informed Google that it was not satisfied with the sandbox from a privacy point of view. An opinion that Cma will take into consideration. The ICO wrote in a draft report this month that Google’s Privacy Sandbox tools leave various gaps that advertisers could use to identify users who should be anonymous. Last week, Google reiterated that the tools were designed to greatly improve privacy and that the company would work closely with the ICO.
A CMA spokesperson said the regulator planned to work with the ICO to conclude the review by the end of the year.
Now Google’s goal is to ban (third-party) cookies at the beginning of 2025, if it manages to quickly convince Cma. In fact, already in January 2024 Google began to limit cookies for 1% of Chrome users as part of what it defined as a test.
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges in reconciling divergent feedback from industry, regulators, and developers, and we will continue to work closely with the entire ecosystem,” Google wrote.
Google called some of the criticism inaccurate and said some tracking features will be limited on purpose to improve privacy. The company said it will not give preferential treatment to its products during the transition.
The postponement will give advertisers more time to prepare, said Paul Bannister, chief strategy officer at media company Raptive.
“People’s privacy is important and so is the revenue of publishers who create great content for these people,” Bannister said.