After years of uncertainty, Google has revealed it won’t be deprecating third-party cookies. Instead, it will keep third-party cookies up and running if they are not disabled manually by the user.
“The continuation of third-party cookies will surely bring some relief to the advertising world, but it is not the solution that solves all challenges the industry is still facing,” says Christoph Kruse, Marketing Director at MINT.
The search giant originally set a deadline of January 2020 to deprecate third-party cookie support in Chrome, and further pushed back its timeline two more times after this.
Not a lot of marketers and advertisers are surprised by this decision to ultimately scrap the plan. In Forrester’s Marketing Survey 2024, 61% of B2C marketers said that they do not believe Google will deprecate the third-party cookie.
“This approach doesn’t discard the industry’s efforts to find alternatives to cookies,” says Jason Warner, Director UK and EMEA at SBS.
“Instead, it puts the choice back into the hands of consumers, empowering them to decide their preferences. Brands now have a range of ways to reach their target audiences, based on how users want to be tracked. Ultimately, this leads to a fairer and more equitable internet for all.”
In April of this year, Google announced Privacy Sandbox – the company’s suite of proposed cookie alternatives. However, recent research has also indicated that Google’s Privacy Sandbox terms may violate privacy laws.
However, to enhance user privacy while preserving advertising effectiveness, Google plans to roll out a new solution: a one-time prompt that enables users to set preferences that will apply across Google browsing experiences.
“Despite the availability of cookies, we have seen a decline in acceptance of such cookies. A third of global internet users use ad blockers that also have an effect on the tracking capabilities and a substantial number of users have become more privacy aware and don’t always accept all cookies when the prompt appears on a site. So even when third-party cookies won’t be deprecated completely by Google, there might be a significant drop of available data.“ continues Kruse.
With this announcement, marketers, publishers and advertisers preparing for a cookieless future may have to reassess their strategies. The four-year long saga has created uncertainty and pressure for these employees. This most recent decision will be creating more shifts and re-planning, but hopefully now with a more certain future ahead.