Google has officially announced it will be delaying the deprecation of third-party cookies, pushing the changes back to 2023.
When Google first announced it would be getting rid of cookies on Chrome back in early 2020, some questioned the feasibility of the proposed timeline of two years.
In an announcement on Thursday, Google’s privacy engineering director, Chrome Vinay Goel confirmed Google was granting an extension.
“It’s become clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right,” he said.
Chrome will now be phasing out cookies over a three-month period, starting in mid-2023 and ending later that year.
The decision to delay the deprecation of cookies follows a recent announcement from Google that it would be working with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to develop a more privacy-focused digital advertising ecosystem.
“We believe the web community needs to come together to develop a set of open standards to fundamentally enhance privacy on the web, giving people more transparency and greater control over how their data is used,” said Goel.
“In order to do this, we need to move at a responsible pace. This will allow sufficient time for public discussion on the right solutions, continued engagement with regulators, and for publishers and the advertising industry to migrate their services.”
Google also provided additional detail into how it will actually remove cookies from Chrome.
Goel revealed Google will now be looking to have all of its cookieless technologies available to the developer community by late 2022. These technologies can then be discussed and tested before they are scaled across the wider ecosystem.
There will then be a two-stage process used to actually remove cookies.
First, in late 2022 once testing is complete, publishers and advertisers will be given time to migrate their services. Google expects this to last around nine months.
Then, in stage two, Chrome will phase out support for third-party cookies over a three month period.
Privacy sandbox
The announcement also contained additional information about Google’s Privacy Sandbox (including an official website).
Goel said Google will soon be providing developers with more information in regards to what the sandbox will actually look like.
“We believe that the Privacy Sandbox will provide the best privacy protections for everyone,” he said.
“By ensuring that the ecosystem can support their businesses without tracking individuals across the web, we can all ensure that free access to content continues.
“And because of the importance of this mission, we must take time to evaluate the new technologies, gather feedback and iterate to ensure they meet our goals for both privacy and performance, and give all developers time to follow the best path for privacy.”
