Google has announced the end of most of its Privacy Sandbox technologies. These systems began to be developed six years ago with the intention of getting rid of cookies, but that initiative now almost completely disappears after suffering severe problems and delays. The decision affects developers, advertisers, media and Chrome users on both mobile phones and computers.
Living without cookies seemed possible. The dream was that the Chrome browser would end up having a system in which the data used to personalize the advertising that we see in the browser would reside on our devices. From there, these systems would have used algorithms to offer targeted advertising, and we would all win: advertisers could continue sending “personalized” advertising, but without specifically and individually tracking each user.
Many systems disappear. On the official blog of this technology, its head, Anthony Chavez, explained that he will withdraw the vast majority of technologies that he had developed for this purpose. According to this manager, the abandonment of these systems is due to their “low adoption rate.” It will keep some of the technologies: CHIPS (“partitioned” cookies), FedCM (to provide a federated identity) and Private State Tokens (anti-fraud) will remain active.
We want a universal standard. In addition to the low adoption rate, Google added that the ecosystem of advertisers, developers and media requested advertising and performance measurement solutions capable of operating broadly. This is exactly what many sectors were protesting about, accusing Google of favoring Chrome and its advertising platform with this type of system. Google precisely adds in its announcement that they will work on an interoperable standard that meets the requirements requested by the W3C organization.
Plummeting income. The tools that Google was testing with Privacy Sandbox were failing in key aspects. Above all, in the decrease in income: those who tested these systems detected a 30% drop in income, and also latency problems that increased it by 200%. Their technical complexity and lack of trust were other factors: the systems simply did not fulfill their purpose.
A setback for the industry and users. Google’s initial announcement almost six years ago was promising: they wanted to eliminate cookies from Chrome. Their first attempt, FLoC technology, soon came under fire from all quarters, calling it “a terrible idea.” Then came other attempts and proposals such as Topics, but the theoretical end of cookies in Chrome kept getting delayed.
Many wasted resources. As they point out in PPC.Land, this surrender by Google means that the work of companies, developers and media has come to nothing. Those who tried to adapt to these technologies and prepare for that hypothetical future without cookies now find that all those efforts were in vain.
Cookies will continue with us. So Google (and its billions of users) are back to square one. Cookies have proven to be overly important to the internet economy, but their impact on privacy and user experience—including cookie notices—remains dire.
W3C open standards as an alternative. The W3C consortium is working on solutions through its Private Advertising Technology Working Group (PAT WG). One of the systems developed is called Privacy-Preserving Attribution: Level 1, which measures advertising conversions avoiding user re-identification. Now it remains to be seen if it can become an interoperable standard adopted by browsers.
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