Chrome: Google restricts third-party cookies – 01/05/2024 – Tech

This Thursday (4) Google began limiting third-party cookies for some Chrome browser users, the first step in a decision announced in 2020 to definitively abandon trackers — criticized for their intrusive nature.

“As per previously announced plan, Chrome is limiting third-party cookies by default to 1% of its users, to facilitate testing before increasing capacity to 100% of users, starting in the third quarter of 2024”, indicated the giant American in a post on her blog.

Cookies, small files used to track users’ browsing and offer personalized advertisements, have been subject to stricter regulation, such as the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) of the European Union in 2016, or a law of the same scope in California, in the USA.

The term “third-party cookies” is used to indicate cookies that come from the websites you visit and not from the browser itself.

Google highlighted that the complete elimination of third-party cookies will only be possible after approval by the UK CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) in relation to possible competition issues.

In January 2020, the company announced its commitment to phase out third-party cookies within two years. The implementation of this reform was delayed several times before it came into force in early January.

Over the past two years, Google has been developing an alternative system to cookies, linked to the browser and not to the websites visited. Instead of targeting individual users, advertisers will target audience segments — called “FLoC” — that include hundreds or thousands of people.