AMENIA, N.Y. – Google this week ended a plan to remove tracking cookies from its popular Chrome browser after four years of delays and disagreements with marketers and advertising agencies. The search giant is giving people more choice in how their personal data are collected and used by advertisers.
“Third-party cookies have always been terrible for privacy,” Lauren Wetzel, chief executive officer of InfoSum, said in this interview with Beet.TV contributor Rob Williams at the Beet Retreat Berkshires. “I like that what Google did announce is that they’re going to make it about the consumer’s choice, which is important, and their ability to opt out.”
Google’s decision to keep cookies in Chrome comes after multiple troubles as digital-advertising businesses and authorities objected to the plan and proposed replacements. A tracking, or third-party, cookie helps advertisers to target and retarget consumers as they visit different websites.
“You have many other browsers and many other channels and many other new environments, such as CTV [connected television], such as commerce media — which haven’t been reliant on cookies for quite some time,” Wetzel said.
Google in 2020 initially said its plan to kill cookies would be completed by 2022. Consumer-privacy advocates approved, but advertisers didn’t like it. They said Google’s plan to replace cookies confine their spending to its digital-ad products.
“We recognize this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising,” Anthony Chavez, vice president of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, the company’s program to find an alternative to cookies, wrote in a blog post. “We’re discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.”
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