Google has delayed its plan to block third-party cookies in Chrome until 2023

Google announced last week to phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome browser until 2023, which was originally planned for 2022.

Cookies are something that track users' internet activity and allow digital publishers to target advertising. Browsers like Safari and Firefox have already implemented some blocking against third-party tracking cookies, but Chrome is the most-used desktop browser, and so its shift will be more substantial for the ad industry.

Vinay Goel, privacy engineering director for Google's Chrome browser said in a blog post: "It's become clear that time is needed across the ecosystem" in order to "get this right".

Few will shed tears for Google, but it has found itself in a very difficult place as the sole company that dominates multiple industries: search, ads, and browsers. The more Google cuts off third-party tracking, the more it harms other advertising companies and potentially increases its own dominance in the ad space. The less Google cuts off tracking, the more likely it is to come under fire for not protecting user privacy. And no matter what it does, it will come under heavy fire from regulators, privacy advocates, advertisers, publishers, and anybody else with any kind of stake in the web.

Google's new privacy proposals are known as the Privacy Sandbox.

One of its idea, without compromising privacy is the introduction of something called The Federated Learning of Cohorts, or "Floc".

The idea is that a browser enabled with Floc would collect information about browsing habits and assign users to a group, or "flock", with similar browsing histories. Each would share an ID which would indicate their interests to advertisers.

We assume this gives enough time to advertisers, publishers, and regulator to get used to upcoming technologies and prepare for future.

---

Sources: bbc.com