Google has quietly abandoned its plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome, opting instead to leave support for them unrestricted, ArsTechnica reports. Anthony Chavez, vice president of the Privacy Sandbox initiative, confirmed that the company will no longer introduce a dialog box for users asking them to disable third-party cookies and switch to the new Privacy Sandbox API.
The decision ended an initiative launched in 2019 under the brand name Privacy Sandbox, which was intended to create a more privacy-friendly alternative to cookies for targeted advertising. Early proposals, such as FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), were criticized for being too weak to improve privacy. Subsequent solutions, such as API Topics, did not gain industry support, and Google has repeatedly pushed back the deadline for phasing out third-party cookies beyond 2022.
Chrome is currently supposed to show users a dialog box asking them to disable third-party cookies, but Chavez explained that the advertising industry's growing focus on privacy has allowed Google to move away from forcing a change in settings. "We're seeing the advertising industry taking privacy more seriously," he said, adding that users can still manually disable third-party cookies in Chrome's settings.
Despite the cancellation of Chrome's most high-profile privacy initiative, the Privacy Sandbox project is not completely shutting down. The team will continue to work on improving Incognito Mode, which already blocks all third-party cookies, and will receive IP masking to combat cross-site tracking later this year.
Chavez acknowledged that without a dialogue about cookie opt-out, the role of the Privacy Sandbox API in the marketplace will change. Google will continue to develop these tools and work with partners, but voluntary adoption is likely to remain uneven.
Analysts attribute Google's shift in priorities to growing antitrust pressure. Since launching Privacy Sandbox, the company has lost several key cases, including those involving search and ad technology. The U.S. government and state attorneys general are seeking action against Chrome, and Google is reluctant to use its browser dominance to forcefully change the advertising industry.
"Under the current oversight, forcing the industry to reform through a browser update would be short-sighted," says a lawyer familiar with Google's internal strategy.
Privacy advocates regret the move. Third-party cookies have long been a source of aggressive user profiling, and many hoped the Privacy Sandbox would put an end to this. But critics feared that the overarching reliance on Google’s APIs would only strengthen the company’s monopoly, and the promised benefits might never materialize.