Google has once again delayed its plan to remove third-party cookies from the Chrome web browser. The latest postponement comes after ongoing challenges to reconcile feedback from industry players and regulators.
The announcement was made at Google’s joint quarterly report with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on the Privacy Sandbox initiative, which will be published on 26 April.
Chrome’s phasing out of third-party cookies has been pushed back to 2025
Google states “will not complete the deactivation of third-party cookies in the second half of the fourth quarter” of this year as planned.
Instead, the tech giant aims to start disabling third-party cookies in Chrome “early next year”, assuming an agreement can be reached with the CMA and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) United Kingdom.
The statement reads:
“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from industry, regulators and developers, and we will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem. It is also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all the evidence , including the results of industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”
Continued collaboration with regulators
Google reiterated its commitment to “work closely with the CMA and the ICO” throughout the process and hopes to conclude discussions this year.
This marks the third delay in Google’s plan to disable third-party cookies, initially aiming to phase them out in the third quarter of 2023 before pushing it back to late 2024.
The postponements reflect the challenges of transitioning user tracking between sites while balancing privacy and advertiser interests.
Transition period and impact
In January, Chrome began restricting third-party cookie access to 1% of users worldwide. This percentage was expected to gradually increase until 100% of users were covered by 3Q 2024.
However, the latest delay gives websites and services more time to migrate from third-party cookie dependencies through Google’s limited “opt-out” program.
The trials offer temporary extensions of cookie access until December 27, 2024, for non-advertising use cases that can demonstrate direct user impact and functional disruption.
While making the transition easier, the tests have strict eligibility rules. Advertising-related services are not eligible, and origins that match known advertising-related domains are rejected.
Google says the program is aimed at addressing functional issues rather than alleviating the general inconvenience of data collection.
Publisher and Advertiser Implications
The repeated delays highlight the potential disruption for digital publishers and advertisers who rely on third-party cookie tracking.
Industry groups have raised concerns that restricting cross-site tracking could push websites toward more opaque practices that invade privacy.
However, privacy advocates see the phase-out as crucial to preventing covert user profiling across the web.
With the latest postponement, all parties have more time to prepare for the eventual loss of third-party cookies and adopt Google’s proposed privacy testing APIs as replacements.
Featured image: Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock
