Google reverses plan to drop third-party cookies in Chrome

Tech giant abandons long-standing promise to phase out tracking cookies amid industry challenges

Google said on Tuesday it will not be introducing a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies and will keep using the small tracking files in its Chrome browser.

This marks a major shift from the company’s earlier promise to retire third-party cookies and reshape web advertising.

The decision brings years of development under Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative into question. That project aimed to build tools that would protect user privacy while still supporting online advertising. Now, Google says it will no longer push forward with the user-facing cookie prompt that had been planned as part of this broader effort.

With Chrome accounting for over half of global web browser usage, Google's decision could slow broader efforts to strengthen privacy protections across the internet.

Long history of delays

This is not the first time Google has changed its course on the issue. The company first announced its intention to remove third-party cookies in 2020, setting off a series of delays and revisions. In a 2024 update on the same subject, Google said it won’t be “deprecating third-party cookies” but will introduce a new approach in Chrome that allows users to block or allow third-party cookies across their web browsing. Each iteration of the Privacy Sandbox faced criticism, with privacy advocates questioning its effectiveness and regulators warning it could further entrench Google’s market power.

Now after years of shifting the goal post on what it plans to do with third-party cookies on its browser, it appears the Privacy Sandbox approach has come to an end. Although users can still manage third-party cookie settings through Chrome’s existing privacy tools, there will be no new standalone prompt or automatic cookie blocking like what you have on Firefox and Safari.

Regulatory concerns may have played a major role in Google’s reversal. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been keeping a close eye on Google’s Privacy Sandbox plans to determine whether it could allow covert tracking techniques and potentially strengthen Google’s dominance in digital advertising. Last week, Google was slammed with a £5 billion lawsuitover claims that it abused its dominance in online search advertising.

Despite abandoning the plan to phase out cookies, Google insists it remains committed to advancing privacy-enhancing technologies. “We'll continue to enhance tracking protections in Chrome's Incognito mode, which already blocks third-party cookies by default,” said Anthony Chavez, Google’s vice president for Privacy Sandbox.

Be that as it may, the point remains that third-party cookies will continue to power much of Chrome’s advertising ecosystem, while the debate over privacy and competition carries on.