Google is delaying the end of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser — again. In other unsurprising developments, water remains wet. The ann

Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again

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2024-04-24 00:00:07

Google is delaying the end of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser — again. In other unsurprising developments, water remains wet.

The announcement was made on Tuesday ahead of quarterly reports from Google and the ever-watchful U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), keeping tabs on how this whole situation unfolds.

“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem,” according to a statement Google posted on its website for the Privacy Sandbox. “It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June. Given both of these significant considerations, we will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4.”

This is the third time Google has pushed back its original deadline set in January 2020. Back then, the tech behemoth promised to phase out third-party cookies “within two years” to beef up security for users while surfing the web. But since then, Google’s hit the brakes twice already. And every time, it’s been to give the ad industry more prep time for something that’s been surrounded by a lot of ifs, buts, and maybes. Even at the start of the year, as Google phased out cookies for one percent of browser traffic, questions loomed over when more significant changes would occur.