Query on third-party cookies: Google buries plan for the Privacy Sandbox

Google is almost completely abandoning the Privacy Sandbox and is no longer planning to use the new technology instead of third-party cookies. This was announced by Anthony Chavez in a blog post, thus probably burying the last resort to save its cookie alternative.

Google had already almost completely scrapped its plans for its replacement for third-party cookies last summer. At that time, however, it was still said that Chrome users would at least soon be able to activate them themselves. However, this option will not be coming either. However, according to Chavez, Google still does not want to give up the technology completely, and it will “play a different role”.

Resistance from all sides

With the Privacy Sandbox, Google has been working for years on a replacement for third-party cookies, which should continue to enable the display of targeted advertising without having to collect 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, and auctions for the marketing of advertising space in real time, which will no longer run on ad servers but on end devices.

There has been massive criticism of Google's plans from a wide variety of directions. For example, there were fears that Google could further consolidate its dominance in the online advertising market with the Privacy Sandbox. The promise of supposedly more privacy was also not believed. Last year, the Austrian civil rights organization Noyb filed a complaint against the technology and criticized a new form of tracking. British authorities also complained that Google's plans could harm competitors in the advertising industry, while Google itself benefited. This was followed by lost proceedings in front of US reports on Google's conduct in the advertising market and now the end of the plans.

(mho)