Google Abandons Plan to Phase Out Tracking Cookies

Well, after all that, after years of telling us that cookie tracking is going away, and that marketers need to brace themselves for the next big shift, Google has now announced that it won’t actually be retiring cookies after all.

The years-long back and forth, which has seen Google delay the cookie phase out several times, due to various challenges and concerns, has now forced the search giant to revise its approach, with the company announcing that it’s exploring an entirely new alternative to enhance data privacy.

As per Google:

“We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. 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.”

Which brings to an end essentially five years of consternation among industry folk.

To recap, back in 2020, Google announced its initial plan to phase out cookie tracking, initially by 2022, which was in line with the broader shift towards enhanced data privacy and control for web users. Google’s phase out plan included the development of its new Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) model, which would still enable a level of user activity tracking, though without the personal identifiers that could be tied to any specific user.

But that plan was challenged, by many in various industries, and as a result, in 2021, Google announced that it was delaying the FLoC plan with a view to establishing a better solution that would address all requirements.

Google then switched focus to its Privacy Sandbox project, which had been in production for some time as a lesser element. Google launched Privacy Sandbox for public use in September 2023, and by January 2024, it had a new plan in place to use the project as the alternative replacement for cookies, with the updated system set to categorize web users into topic categories, as opposed to facilitating individual tracking.

Google’s Privacy Sandbox was set to replace cookies by Q3 this year.

But that didn’t go ahead either.

After various concerns were raised, by various industry and regulatory bodies, Google delayed the cookie phase out once again. This was primarily due to a challenge from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which had raised various concerns in regards to how the move would impact the broader digital marketing industry, and Google’s competitors in the space.

That ultimately meant that Google’s cookie phase out was delayed till at least 2025, but now, it’s not going ahead at all, as Google has had enough of trying to appease the various players.

“We’re grateful to all the organizations and individuals who have worked with us over the last four years to develop, test and adopt the Privacy Sandbox. And as we finalize this approach, we’ll continue to consult with the CMA, ICO and other regulators globally. We look forward to continued collaboration with the ecosystem on the next phase of the journey to a more private web.”

Google says that it will continue to make its Privacy Sandbox APIs available, and that it’ll keep investing in them to further improve privacy and utility, so there will still be alternatives based on this model.

But it won’t be the only one, and Google won’t be retiring tracking cookies outright, at least not yet.

Which will mean that many industry folk can breathe a sigh of relief at not having to implement all new systems and processes to facilitate data tracking. Things will still change, of course, but at least for the time being, the status quo will remain the same in the data space.

It’s a surprising shift for the company, which had seemed determined to make the switch, riding on the back of Apple’s enhanced data privacy updates, including its controversial App Tracking Transparency switch in 2022. That seemed to open the door for Google’s new approach, but Google was hesitant to make any significant change that could impact its core ads business, and/or bring more regulatory scrutiny.

As a result, Google has revised and delayed till it seemingly felt it had no chance of appeasing all parties. So it’s now changing tack, which will see an all-new data privacy approach from the app.

What form that will take is not clear as yet, but as Google notes, it’ll be based around user choice, and empowering each individual to limit what data they share.

That, based on historical evidence, could end up being a big win for advertisers, as most users simply won’t make any changes to their settings. But then again, if Google starts prompting users with pop-ups, like Apple does with ATT, that could also end up being significantly worse too, and see much less user data flowing through.

We’ll have to wait and see, but for now, cookies are here to stay.