Google is now ditching its plan to replace cookies in Chrome

Google has been talking up a post-cookie future (in the browser sense, not the diet sense) for years now. But it seems like the company isn’t as confident as it used to be in its ability to completely re-shape the internet… or it might be balking under regulator scrutiny.

In any case, Google’s Privacy Sandbox is now going to be an optional feature alongside old-fashioned cookies instead of a total replacement.

Though this is all a bit hazy from a user perspective, Google’s attempt to replace third-party cookies across the web is (was?) a big deal. Tracking user behavior and movement from site to site is one of the things that makes targeted advertising possible and profitable, and that kind of tracking is primarily done using cookies.

But rampant abuse of cookies—with websites overloaded with hundreds of tracking points on every page, building up user profiles that all but abandon the idea of privacy—has made them a hot topic for regulators.

For better or worse, this is what gave us the GDPR cookie consent messages you probably see everywhere, even if you aren’t in Europe.

Privacy Sandbox was Google’s proposed solution to this issue. It replaces individual user cookies with wide blocks of semi-anonymous users grouped together based on a variety of demographic factors. It’s a compromise between current tracking tech (which can narrow down users to the point of being individually identifiable and highly trackable) and a more user-focused straight cookie block (as seen on Apple’s implementation for third-party apps on iOS).

Predictably, the Privacy Sandbox system fell short on both fronts: its privacy wasn’t enough to win over privacy advocates, and its tracking wasn’t effective enough to win over advertisers. Plus, regulators didn’t like the idea of Google—already the largest advertiser on the planet—developing its own system that could be forced upon competitors as a de facto standard via Chrome’s massive market share. And no other browser maker (certainly not Microsoft nor Apple) committed to Privacy Sandbox, with niche browsers like Brave and Vivaldi actively rejecting it.

Google claims that its Privacy Sandbox APIs have enhanced privacy and “works for publishers and advertisers,” but after four years is now abandoning its plan to rid Chrome’s reliance on third-party cookies.

Google Vice President Anthony Chavez had this to say:

“Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time. We’re discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”

Google’s blog post didn’t say when this choice will be available to users, how advertisers would distinguish between those using conventional cookies and Privacy Sandbox, or how the issues for Sandbox would be resolved.

Google can talk all it wants about “elevating user choice,” but the fact of the matter is that no one’s going to willingly abandon a system that’s been in place for decades (warts and all) for a Google-only solution. Strong-arming Privacy Sandbox via Chrome’s market dominance was Google’s intended play, and it failed to work with advertisers and brought in even more heat from regulators. It’s effectively dead on arrival, if indeed Privacy Sandbox ever arrives in a wide rollout.