At the beginning of the year, we told you that Google has made it known it will be phasing out third-party tracking cookies and will NOT be replacing these cookies. This is due to people having growing concerns about their privacy.

Google has recently announced that it will push back its timeline to block third-party cookies in Google Chrome. 

While there’s considerable progress with this initiative, it’s become clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right,” said Vinay Goel, Privacy Engineering Director with Chrome.

This delay may be beneficial for the web community as it allows them to convene and further discuss the topic, allow regulators to understand and to provide input, as well as for advertisers to adjust their services. 

What does the new timeline look like?

The updated timeline allows for technology to be deployed by late 2022. 

“Subject to our engagement with the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and in line with the commitments we have offered, Chrome could then phase out third-party cookies over a three-month period, starting in mid-2023 and ending in late 2023,” added Goel.

Google will implement a Public Development process before the launch which will allow the public and regulators to have their say in the third-party cookie devaluation process. 

The process goes as follows:

1. Discussion: Forums such as GitHub and W3C groups will discuss the technologies and their prototypes 
2. Testing: Using Google Chrome, the technologies are tested through numerous origin trials which allows for transparency and feedback
3. Ready for adoption: After the various developmental processes and testing phases are complete, the technologies which were successful are ready to be used. These technologies will be launched in Google Chrome and ready for scaled use across the internet. 

What happens after this?

Once all the necessary developmental processes and testings have been completed, if the solution passes the commitments Google has planned the CMS rollout to look as follows:

1. Stage one: This stage will start in late 2022 once the testing has been completed and APIs are launched in Chrome. This stage will allow for publishers and advertisers to migrate their services. Google expects this stage to last for nine months while monitoring the adoption and feedback closely before transitioning to stage 2. 
2. Stage two: This stage will start in mid 2023 as Google Chrome will phase out the support of third-party cookies over a period of three months with the intention to finish in late 2023. 

Why should you care?

Advertisers have been concerned about exactly what the rollout of the tech giant’s privacy initiatives and the blocking of third-party cookies means for their advertising metrics and their clients. However, this delay allows for concerns to be heard by Google and that allows for more time to prepare for all major changes – including finding technology solutions that adjust when cookies have been diminished. This will allow advertisers to figure out a first-party data strategy. Check out this article on “No more tracking once Google replaces third-party cookies” to get a better understanding of what it means for advertisers.

Tags: digital marketing, google