Google has abandoned plans to kill off pervasive user tracking technologies known as cookies after four years of effort on alternatives that sparked clashes with regulators and the advertising industry.
In a major reversal announced on Tuesday morning, Google said it will continue to allow third-party cookies which track users across multiple sites and underpin the online advertising system.
Development on an alternative will continue in parallel with consumers to be given an “informed choice” on how their web browsing is tracked, Google said.
Australia’s $14 billion online advertising industry is being urged to continue engaging on the alternatives but the tech giant’s battle with UK competition regulators will ultimately drive the change.
Google announced in 2020 it would phase out third party cookies from its market leading browser within two years after competitors like Apple and Firefox banned them over privacy concerns.
The digital advertising giant repeatedly pushed back the cutoff date after being challenged by industry and regulators on its replacement through a Privacy Sandbox, which will continue to be developed.
While there was little regulatory pressure for the change in Australia, UK competition regulators had raised concerns with the replacement.
These included potential self-preferencing of Google’s advertising technology and an entrenchment of Google’s market dominance through first party data.
Google’s Privacy Sandbox VP Anthony Chavez said the sandbox will eventually provide solutions that support a competitive online advertising marketplace and its performance will improve with increased adoption.
“At the same time, we recognise this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising,” he wrote in a company blog post.
Google said it will continue investing in the Privacy Sandbox and make its APIs available to developers.
The latest switch back to allowing third party cookies will now be considered by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
IAB Australia tech lead Jonas Jaanimagi said it is a significant update from Google but questions remain about execution, consumer opt-in vs. opt-out, and the potential impact on volumes of ad campaigns that will require the use of Google’s various Privacy Sandbox APIs
“Ultimately, the ongoing engagement between Google and the UK’s CMA will remain critical on this one — and it’s worth noting the deadline of August 12th for global industry feedback for them to take into consideration,” he told InnovationAus.com.
“Both buyers and sellers will still need to fully engage with and test the full range of evolving solutions for both web-based and in-app environments provided by the likes of Google, Microsoft and Apple.”
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