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Generally, the advertisements that appear on the sites you visit are not chosen at random. Indeed, advertising platforms try to show you ads that match your interests. And to know these centers of interest, these platforms can use so-called “third-party” cookies which can track your online activities across several sites.
Browsers like Mozilla Firefox or Safari already have mechanisms in place to block this type of cookies. And for several years, Google has also been working on a similar feature for its Chrome browser. However, before blocking third-party cookies on Chrome, Google first developed a more privacy-friendly alternative for the advertising industry. And moreover, instead of applying an abrupt change, the firm prefers to deploy this change in a very gradual manner.
In any case, this start of the year is marked by the start of the implementation of this change on Google Chrome. Indeed, on January 4, Google began rolling out the feature that blocks third-party cookies to a small fraction of Chrome users. More precisely, the firm is testing this big change on 1% of its browser users, or around 30 million people.
Users chosen at random
People who participate in this test will be chosen at random. If you are one of the affected users, Google will let you know through a notification on Chrome. Furthermore, if the absence of third-party cookies causes a malfunction on a website, Google will offer the user a way to temporarily reactivate third-party cookies.
“[…] we're taking a responsible approach to phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome. We created new tools for sites that support key use cases and gave developers time to make the transition. And as we introduce tracking protection, we're starting with a small percentage of Chrome users so developers can test their readiness for a web without third-party cookies”, Google indicated in December.
As a reminder, for advertising targeting, Google already offers an alternative to third-party cookies called Topics. In essence, this alternative allows advertising networks to know the themes that may interest the Internet user, without having access to their browsing history. Moreover, this solution will also be adopted on Android, in order to put an end to the use of advertising identifiers.
- Google wants to end the use of third-party cookies on the web
- And this has started to deploy changes on Google Chrome
- Initially, third-party cookies will only be blocked for 1% of users, so that websites can prepare for this change
- Google already offers alternatives to third-party cookies, including the “Topic” tool for ad targeting
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