The company will also soon launch anti-fingerprinting measures aimed at detecting and mitigating covert tracking and workarounds
Google has announced plans to phase out support for third-party cookies in its Chrome web browser within the next two years. The company is joining the ranks of Mozilla and Apple that, also in a bid to improve privacy on the web, have implemented similar changes in the Firefox and Safari browsers, respectively. But the way Google approaches the issue diverges from the path the competition took.
While Apple and Mozilla instituted a block of all third-party cookies by default, Google is planning to develop its own set of technical solutions and tools that it believes will satisfy the needs of all the parties concerned – users, web publishers, and advertisers. The reasoning behind this decision is that the nuclear option of blocking all third-party cookies, which are instrumental for targeted advertising, may have unintended adverse effects.
Justin Schuh, director of Chrome Engineering put it this way:
“Some browsers have reacted to these concerns by blocking third-party cookies, but we believe this has unintended consequences that can negatively impact both users and the web ecosystem. By undermining the business model of many ad-supported websites, blunt approaches to cookies encourage the use of opaque techniques such as fingerprinting (an invasive workaround to replace cookies), which can actually reduce user privacy and control.”
