Google Chrome To Eliminate Third-Party Cookies In Privacy Push

After bans brought about by Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple, Google also is seeking to make so-called third-party cookies “obsolete.” Cross-website cookies have underpinned digital advertising for a quarter of a century, the Financial Times reported. 

Google said in a post that it desired to create alternative tools to “sustain an ad-supported web” in such a fashion that would “render third-party cookies obsolete” within the timeframe of two years. Alternatives could turn Chrome into a more important intermediary, which would have data on users that it would select provide to agencies seeking to measure and target advertising. 

Chrome rolled out a bit more than 10 years ago and now dominates the market for desktop browsing. The changes will restrict the flow of information to ad agencies as well as brokers. (Digital marketers call the trend “the cookie apocalypse.”) However, as is the case with a lot of the privacy-friendly reforms in the process of rolling out in Europe and the U.S., the move could potentially further bolster Google as well as other large internet gatekeepers. 

A research associate at the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs at Oxford University, Lukasz Olejnik, noted per the report that the cookie phase-out would “severely’” reduce the ability of firms to discern “private and sensitive insights” regarding web users. While sites will still have the ability to tag individuals with “first-party cookies,” third parties will not have the ability to put cookies on websites to create a picture of users as they traverse the internet.

Verizon Media has rolled out its OneSearch “privacy-focused” search engine. The tech company reportedly promises that there won’t be ad personalization, cookie tracking, data-storing, profiling, and data-sharing with advertisers. OneSearch promises to display the same results for searches to all users as it is not geared toward an individual.

The launch comes as public trust in large tech firms has fallen to a low with many reports of lapses, data harvesting efforts and breaches. As a result, “privacy” is said to be the chosen buzzword emanating from many large tech companies.