Google has officially ended its initiative to phase out third-party cookies in its Chrome browser, marking a departure from its long-standing Privacy Sandbox project. The decision comes after years of development, testing, and regulatory scrutiny.
Anthony Chavez, Vice President of Privacy Sandbox at Google, announced the change in a blog, stating, “As we’ve engaged with the ecosystem, including publishers, developers, regulators, and the ads industry, it remains clear that there are divergent perspectives on making changes that could impact the availability of third-party cookies.”
Despite halting the phase-out of third-party cookies, Google remains committed to developing privacy-preserving technologies through its Privacy Sandbox initiative. Chavez noted that the company will continue to invest in Privacy Sandbox APIs and plans to introduce additional privacy controls, including IP Protection in Chrome’s Incognito mode, slated for launch in Q3 2025.
Google’s efforts to move away from third-party cookies began in August 2019, when the company introduced the Privacy Sandbox project—an initiative designed to create privacy-preserving alternatives for the ad industry without compromising user experience. By January 2020, Google publicly committed to phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome within two years, stating that this would improve user privacy and reduce cross-site tracking.
However, that timeline soon proved too ambitious. In June 2021, the company announced a delay, pushing the deadline to the second half of 2023. The delay was attributed to the need for more robust testing and collaboration with the advertising ecosystem. In July 2022, Google pushed the timeline even further, this time targeting the second half of 2024 for the phase-out. Throughout this period, the Privacy Sandbox technologies were made available for testing, and various APIs were introduced for public comment and feedback.
By January 2024, Google had begun disabling third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users to test the impact and gather insights ahead of the planned broader rollout. But as regulatory pressure intensified—especially from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and concerns grew over the readiness of the advertising ecosystem—Google reassessed its plans in mid-2024.
In light of this update, Chavez also said that the company understands that the Privacy Sandbox APIs may have a different role to play in supporting the ecosystem. “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. We’re grateful for the continued partnership from companies across the world in advancing privacy-preserving solutions that can support a healthy, thriving web ecosystem,” he added.
