If you were looking forward to an internet free of cookies, I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news: Google is officially cancelling its plans to kill cookies.
The company announced the decision in a blog post Monday, citing feedback from regulators, publishers, developers, and individuals in the advertising industry. Google says that, while the company still believes it can strike a balance between the online ad marketplace and user privacy, it understands the existing challenges in doing so with this many moving parts. The company says, "this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising."
As such, Google announced it is changing tactics on its privacy plans for online advertising: While the company will be abandoning its push to retire cookies, it will be introducing a new option in Chrome that, "lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing." Google fell short of explaining exactly how this "informed choice" works, but users will have the option to change their choice at any time. The company also confirmed it is working with regulators on this feature now, and will keep the industry informed as they roll out the option to users.
However this feature works, putting the onus on users, rather than disabling tracking by default (which is how it works on Safari and Firefox) is a shame—especially considering how popular Google's browser is. That said, it may be similar to how Apple's "App Tracking Transparency" works: You may open Chrome, and be asked whether you'd like to block cookies from tracking your internet activity. You can then choose whether to block that tracking, or allow it. Most people, of course, will likely choose to block this tracking, as is what happened on iOS.
All that said, retiring cookies for good would be the optimal path for preserving user privacy on the web. While some cookies are essential for websites to run properly (they're what's responsible for keeping you logged in, remembering what's in your shopping cart, etc.), most cookies are used by advertisers and other companies to track your activity across websites. You can think of them like an ID badge, containing a ton of personal information about you, your device, and your past activity.
Google wanted to replace cookies with a new policy: the Privacy Sandbox. The idea is, instead of tracking individual users' activity, Google would compile your browsing data with others like it, and anonymize the bunch. Then it would share this data pool with advertisers. These companies would still get relevant data, without being able to tie it directly to you and your activity. It isn't great, since we'd still hand Google a ton of data, but it would be better than modern cookies. You can learn more about how both cookies and the Privacy Sandbox work in my explainer here.
Even though Google isn't killing cookies for good, Chrome still lets you block them if you want to. To start, go to Privacy and security in Chrome's Settings. Under "Default behavior," choose Block third-party cookies. Just be warned without cookies enabled, some site features may not work. If you notice your websites functioning improperly, try changing this setting. You can always use Block third-party cookies in Incognito mode if you'd prefer to keep your private sessions cookie-free.
