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Google on Tuesday revealed that it will no longer offer a standalone prompt for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative.
“We’ve made the decision to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies,” Anthony Chavez, vice president of Privacy Sandbox at Google, said.
“Users can continue to choose the best option for themselves in Chrome’s Privacy and Security Settings.”
Back in July 2024, the tech giant said it had abandoned its plans to deprecate third-party tracking cookies and that it intends to roll out a new experience instead that lets users make an informed choice.
Google said feedback from publishers, developers, regulators, and the ads industry has made it clear there are “divergent perspectives” on making changes that could affect the availability of third-party cookies.
In its place, the tech behemoth said it will continue to invest in enhancing tracking protections in Chrome’s Incognito mode, which blocks third-party cookies by default. It also intends to introduce a new IP Protection feature in the third quarter of 2025.
Already available as an open-source project, the feature aims to limit the availability of a user’s original IP address in third-party contexts in Incognito mode to prevent cross-site tracking.
“In light of this update, we understand that the Privacy Sandbox APIs may have a different role to play in supporting the ecosystem,” Chavez said. “We’ll engage with the industry to gather feedback and share an updated roadmap for these technologies, including our future areas of investment, in the coming months.”
It’s worth noting that while Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox have blocked third-party cookies by default since 2020, Google has had a harder time rolling out similar protections owing to its competing interests as a browser vendor, an advertising platform, and a search engine.
The development also comes at a time when Google is facing intense regulatory scrutiny in the U.S. in recent months, with two different rulings accusing the company of maintaining a monopoly in the search and advertising markets.
The U.S. Department of Justice, as recently as last month, has proposed breaking up Google by divesting the Chrome web browser and forcing it to syndicate its search results as a way to restore competition to the online search market.
AI company OpenAI said it would be interested in buying the browser if Google is forced to sell it off and “introduce users into what an AI-first [browser] looks like,” per Bloomberg and Reuters.
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