In recent years, Google has regularly presented timetables for the elimination of 3rd party cookies in Chrome – none of these timetables were adhered to – transition periods were regularly extended and replacement technologies were renamed (“Privacy Sandbox”, “FLoC”, “Topic”).
Now Google has announced, via the Privacy Sandbox project, that it is abandoning the plan to eliminate 3rd party cookies. This is not entirely surprising after the UK competition watchdogs (Competition and Markets Authority) instructed Google earlier this year to suspend the plan to eliminate cookies and introduce a privacy sandbox.
In essence, I don’t think much will change: Google will continue to strive to keep its own first party data as valuable as possible and make life difficult for all competitors on the Internet. Due to its dominance in browsers (Chrome) and mobile operating systems (Android), they are in a good position to do this. Similar to Apple in recent years, Google will understand how to use these opportunities to its own advantage and create a privacy-friendly veneer for the outside world.
