After several delays in its phasing out and elimination of third-party cookies, Google announced Monday that it decided to ditch those plans. Instead, the tech company said it will give users the choice to allow or disable cookies via a one-time prompt that will set preferences across all of their Google interactions.
As to the reason for the move, Google VP Anthony Chavez explained that the Privacy Sandbox application program interfaces (APIs) have the potential to provide the privacy-enhancing technology the industry requires, but that it will take a significant amount of work and will also impact publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising.
“In light of this, we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice,” he said. “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. We’re discussing this new path with regulators and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”
In its response to Google’s announcement, IAB Canada urged members to continue to lessen dependence on third-party cookies and to push forward with the testing of alternatives.
Sonia Carreno, president of the IAB told MiC that the organization expects there will be some “significant and impressive developments in the coming months as a result of the extra time being spent to focus efforts on the efficacy and implementation details of a stronger Privacy Sandbox toolkit.”
“Many of our members have invested significantly towards new means of addressing audiences in the past year and many had started to report optimistic results. No effort has been wasted as the industry continues to evolve to improve protections for consumers and the mounting regulatory compliance requirements both domestically and across borders,” she added.”
Since announcing in January 2020 that it would eliminate third-party cookies, Mozilla, Firefox and Safari have eliminated cookies. The final step, deprecation on Chrome, has been delayed a few times, most recently until 2025, while Google worked on its Privacy Sandbox clean room and privacy-enhancing solution.
During that time, the industry has not been idle. Agencies and tech companies have been testing new privacy-conscious alternatives including Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM), The Trade Desk’s Unified ID 2.0, and several proprietary, bespoke solutions created by agency networks. Many of these alternatives are said to be more effective than cookies at targeting and maintaining the privacy of individuals.
Christy MacLeod, chief data and solutions officer for Kinesso, says that since the cookieless conversation began, new platforms and solutions have been launching at a rapid pace. These include conversion APIs, server-side tagging, unified IDs, first-party data utilization, clean rooms, and enhanced AI platform performance solutions.
“This dynamic environment has allowed us to mature our clients at a significant rate and ‘now-proof’ their business as much as we have been future-proofing,” MacLeod says. “Whether Google intended to or not, they’ve started a conversation that breaks open the ecosystem and offers companies a chance to offer alternatives. Suddenly, marketers and agencies have a plethora of choices when it comes to how they want to speak to their consumers or measure their media. That opportunity, accompanied by the AI frenzy, is an evolution that can’t be paused or undone.”
Robin LeGassicke, managing director digital at Cairns Oneil, says that while Google’s announcement comes as a bit of a surprise, at the same time it might be smoke and mirrors. The reason that cookies were to be deprecated was to adhere to privacy regulation globally and ensure that consumers have the ability for an educated and consented choice in the data being collected on them.
“This still needs to occur. Regulators across the globe will continue to advocate for consumers’ privacy rights. Google will need to continue down a path to ensure that it gives the user choice and privacy. They have said that they will continue to offer the Privacy Sandbox API but will also be introducing a new experience of IP Protection in Incognito browsing mode on Chrome: ‘We’re discussing this new path with regulators and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.’ This is the key statement. Will this new way forward appease regulators? I’m not confident yet that it will. We, and the regulators, need a better understanding of how this will work.”
LeGassicke adds that the industry still has an obligation to be transparent and ensure that it’s working towards privacy-first solutions that allow for some level of targeting and personalization. “I’m confident it can be done. We should not give up on, or walk away, from cookieless solutions. Depending on the source, roughly 40% of the open web is already cookieless, and is an important part of the marketing ecosystem. First-party solutions and other non-cookie-based ways to build out targetable solutions is important to the future of the industry in a privacy-first world.”
