Google delays again, once again, end cookies from third parties in the Chrome browsera goal that the company set several years ago, but which for various reasons it did not complete, although deep down it is only one: to maintain control of the advertising system on which the company has been based for several decades. before.
The cookies They are those small files that the browser downloads in the background for each page you visit, and which in many cases are necessary to offer the experience that the user expects. The cookies They are necessary, for example, so that the website does not ask you for a password every time you return, to remember the changes made, etc.
The cookies however, third-party providers are primarily focused on tracking users, which is not always harmful. Another example: if you are one of those who like to share news by clicking on the Facebook, Twitter or similar buttons that are usually included in the articles you read online, know that you could not do without them.
However, where is the most widespread use cookies of third parties is in the advertising market, and in fact Google’s personalized advertising system is based on them, so it’s no wonder they thought very carefully before touching. For reasons of privacy, but also for efficiency, given the rise of tracking blockers, this had to be done.
The first thing Google did was block it cookies from third parties that are not transmitted through encrypted channels, i.e. HTTPS, thereby improving the security of these elements, which, after all, are likely to be used at the expense of the user’s privacy and security. They later implemented the SameSite attribute to limit usage cookies third parties, legitimate or unauthorized.
In addition to patches, replacement cookies of third parties in which Google operated, FLoC (from Federated Learning Cohorts), actually improving the potential security flaws of the traditional method, but at the cost of making everything go through the internet giant’s hoops. This means that browsers derived from Chromium would have to accept it yes or yes, and as expected, it didn’t.
But not only browsers like Brave or Vialdi have opposed FLoC: FLoC’s favoritism against Google as a monopoly in online advertising it caused alarm among various parties and doubts about the appropriateness but also the legality of the initiative. At the time, many questions were raised: would Google’s new system be compatible with the European GDPR? A year later, the company scrapped the idea.
So Google abandoned FLoC and replaced it with what it originally called Topics, a new API later reformulated as Privacy Sandbox. Deep down it’s pretty much the same thing, this sophisticated tracking system, safer on paper by not sharing said information among thousands of different “partners”, at least directly, but until then: control will remain in Google’s hands.
This means that the implementation of the Privacy Sandbox will take a long time, and this time Google wants to achieve more consensus among developers, because the more consensus, the less problems it will face in the future, especially among regulators. and consumer protection. In addition, society the time until 2023 was giventhereby expanding the scope for evaluation.
Developers, yes, Google is not referring to its competition, but to the web developers who are in charge of implementing the technology. Everything will start testing from 2023 and consolidate, cookies from third parties will disappear from Chrome in the second half of 2024. From Chrome, or what is the same, from the Internet. If we add browser market share in addition to customization, everything is said.
