Google postpones Privacy Sandbox again ... until 2025
Google does not want to abolish third-party cookies until 2025. The timetable for the Privacy Sandbox has therefore been postponed again.
(Bild: Shutterstock/dotshock)
Due to "ongoing challenges", Google is not yet abolishing third-party cookies in Chrome. This postpones the Privacy Sandbox as a replacement until at least early 2025, with Google stating that "assuming we can reach an agreement, we plan to start removing third-party cookies early next year". The vote primarily relates to the UK Competition and Market Authority (CMA), which requires quarterly updates from Google on the status of the Privacy Sandbox.
According to Google's blog post, the upcoming report will state: "We recognize that there are still challenges in reconciling the diverse feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and we will continue to work closely with the entire ecosystem. It is also important that the CMA has sufficient time to consider all the evidence, including the results of industry testing, which the CMA has asked all market participants to do by the end of June." Therefore, third-party cookies will not be abolished in the second half of the year, as recently stated. Third-party cookies are often used to track people on the web, tracking their usage behavior and interests to show them personalized advertising.
However, the abolition has been delayed for some time. Google had already started deactivating third-party cookies for some test users. This is said to affect around 1 percent of Chrome users. Google says it wants to abolish third-party cookies in order to protect people's privacy when browsing. Of course, users should also have more control over how they are tracked. Data protectionists are extremely skeptical about third-party cookies.
Privacy Sandbox is already being tested
The Privacy Sandbox is the replacement for third-party cookies. However, it should still make it possible to display targeted advertising – but without collecting too much data on individual people. It is an initiative that includes several components or ideas as to what could become the new standard. These include topics, which are subject areas that are assigned to people. Critics believe that this does not protect privacy any better than the cookie variant. The Privacy Sandbox also includes a Protected Audience. Auctions, with which some advertising spaces are marketed in real time, will no longer run on ad servers but on the user's device. This should mean that fewer data is passed on to third parties, but there are also fears that Google could consolidate its dominance in the advertising market and that the API could be misused. Fenced frames are also an element of the Privacy Sandbox to embed advertising and website content in a targeted but privacy-friendly way by limiting the exchange of data between embedded content and the surrounding page.
Initial tests of the Privacy Sandbox have been running since last year. Apple and Mozilla have been blocking third-party cookies in their browsers for years.
(emw)