What Google's Backing Down On Cookies Means for Your Privacy

Google was all set to block third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, but now—surprise—it is leaving this privacy-violating tech intact.

As a part of its Privacy Sandbox scheme, Google announced in 2020 that it would deprecate third-party cookies in the name of user privacy. The plan was to do this within two years. That obviously never happened, and now Google has made a complete reversal. At the heart of this story is the continued belief from the ad-tech industry that it has a right to track everything we do on the web, and cookies are just one decreasingly-effective part of that. The good news is, it's easy to block by yourself. The bad news is, the proposed alternatives aren't any better.

"If you ask me, the decision means Google is finally admitting the alternatives to third-party cookies are worse for targeting and no better for consumer privacy," advertising and marketing consultant Rio Longacre told Lifewire via email.

Cookie Cutter

First, what are third-party cookies anyway? We know what cookies are—little snippets of data that a website saves on your computer, so they know it's you when you return to the site. These "first party cookies" are used to keep you logged into a site you visit often, like your email, or Reddit. They can also store preferences like light mode or dark mode, and more. They're pretty handy.

The privacy problem arises when a website can read cookies from other websites, so-called third-party cookies. For example, if you're on Amazon, the Amazon site reads your Amazon cookie. No problem. But what if you're on a site reading about medical advice, and that website has ads? Any Amazon ads embedded in that site will be able to read your Amazon cookie, and Amazon now knows what medical procedure you were reading about.

It goes deeper, but that's the gist of it. Third-party cookies are a way to track you across the web for advertising purposes, and to gather data on your browsing habits. No wonder ad-tech companies like Google love them so.

Google planned to deprecate third-party cookies in its Chrome browser as a part of its Project Sandbox, which is supposedly a way to protect users' privacy while still allowing advertisers to target their ads. How is this possible, you ask? Well, it's not, really.

Privacy Sandbox

As an ad company, Google obviously wants to keep serving targeted ads. That's one of the main ways it makes its billions after all. Google's answer to increased privacy scrutiny is called Privacy Sandbox, where ad companies can query the Chrome browser directly in order to see what you're interested in. In turn, Chrome uses your browsing history to create a profile of you. The idea is that the ad companies can still target ads, only in a "private" way.

The distinction seems rather thin though. While technically the Privacy Sandbox stops ad-tech companies from tracking you, it could be combined with other technologies like browser fingerprinting, or just grabbing your IP address, to create shadow profiles.

For this article, I asked for expert comment on why Google's cookie reversal is good or bad for you, the user. An overwhelming number of the replies were from folks in the ad-tech industry, and they all had one thing in common: a belief that they are entitled to serve targeted ads, aka an entitlement to track everybody's internet use as deeply and comprehensively as technology allows.

"This decision is actually a good thing, because part of that decision is to implement better ways to give people choice," Stanlei Bellan, chief strategy officer at marketing company JuiceMedia.IO, told Lifewire via email. "The reality is that most users don’t really care about the whole cookie thing and there will always be millions of users leaving them intact, which actually benefits them by having ads that actually make sense and even add value to their lives."

Yes, he actually said that targeted ads can add value to our lives.

It has taken Google four years to work out that it would not automatically block these cookies in Chrome, which makes it seem like a massive undertaking. But you can already block them by checking a box in Chrome's Privacy and Security settings, and Apple's Safari browser has defaulted to blocking third-party cookies for years. Meanwhile, Google continues to equivocate:

"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," wrote Anthony Chavez, VP of Google's Privacy Sandbox, in a blog post.

At some point, governments are going to have to step in and stop this nonsense, and the W3C, the international web standards organization, is already calling for the complete removal of third-party cookies. Until then? Try to find a browser that's not made by a tech giant or an advertising company we guess, which—since Firefox started adding its own tracking methods—pretty much leaves the Vivaldi or Duck Duck Go browsers. Good luck!