Google recently started getting rid of third-party cookies, the tool that websites and advertisers use to track user behavior, on its Chrome browser, effectively kicking off what could be one of the most significant changes in online advertising.
Originally created in the early days of the internet to help websites remember who you are during login, cookies and the ways they facilitate online tracking have become a massive privacy concern. Google eliminated third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users, 30 million people, last week and aims to do so for all 3.2 billion of its users, according to Statista, by the end of 2024.
Eliminating third-party cookies on Chrome, the largest web browser in the world, is Google’s first step toward a “privacy-first web”⏤one that also involves its own replacement tracking tools as part of its new Privacy Sandbox.
Google’s plan could improve privacy on the internet for billions of people, but it could also make life online more annoying in the process, says Christo Wilson, an associate professor in Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University who specializes in online privacy and tracking.
