Google cannot proceed with the deactivation of third-party cookies until it resolves the issues raised by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
The search engine needs to do more to address the issues raised around the proposed changes to privacy testing, or it won’t be able to turn off Chrome’s third-party cookies in the second half of 2024 as planned .
Why we care Brands may gain more time to explore alternatives to third-party cookies if Google is forced to delay their opt-out to address the CMA’s concerns. However, sellers shouldn’t be put off as there’s still time for Google to fix these issues.
What is the Google Privacy Sandbox? Google is introducing the Privacy Sandbox program as an alternative to third-party cookies to allow advertisers to serve ads targeted to Chrome while minimizing inappropriate tracking between sites and apps. A Google spokesperson explained:
“The Privacy Sandbox initiative aims to create technologies that protect people’s privacy online and provide companies and developers with tools to build thriving digital businesses.”
CMA report. The CMA published a report detailing its current competition concerns regarding Google’s Privacy Sandbox, including:
Google can continue to benefit from user activity data while limiting competitors’ access to the same data. Google’s ability to control the inclusion of ad tech rivals on this list could benefit its ad tech services. Publishers and advertisers may be less able to effectively identify fraudulent activity.
next steps The CMA is working with Google to resolve these issues and will report on the progress of each engine in its next quarterly update at the end of April.
Progress so far. Although the CMA stated that Google still has work to do, the report confirmed that in the last quarter of 2023 the search engine met its commitments to make competition fairer.
What the Competition and Markets Authority says. A spokesperson for the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority said in a statement:
“In the first quarter of 2024, we will focus on working with Google to resolve the competition issues we identified in this report.” “We are particularly interested in addressing any remaining concerns about the design of the Sandbox privacy tools and ensuring that Google does not use the tools in a way that favors its own advertising services.” “As part of this, we are also looking to clarify the long-term governance arrangements for the Privacy Sandbox. We would welcome feedback from stakeholders on our analysis of concerns so that we can take them into account in our discussions with Google from now until the blackout period.”
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deep dive Read the Competition and Markets Authority report in full for more information.
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About the author
Nicola Agius is Search Engine Land’s paid media editor after joining in 2023. She covers paid media, retail media and more. Prior to that, she was Director of SEO at Jungle Creations (2020-2023), overseeing the company’s editorial strategy for various websites. He has more than 15 years of experience in journalism and previously worked at OK! Magazine (2010-2014), Mail Online (2014-2015), Mirror (2015-2017), Digital Spy (2017-2018) and The Sun (2018-2020). He also previously partnered with SEO agency Blue Array to co-author the Amazon best-selling book Mastering In-House SEO.
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