Cheat Sheet: Google extends cookie execution deadline until late 2023, will pause FLoC testing in July

Google will let the third-party cookie live on for nearly two years longer than planned.

The company has extended its self-imposed deadline to deprecate third-party cookies in its popular Chrome web browser from its original date of January 2022 until late 2023, Google announced today. Even that new deadline appears to be flexible, though.

Here’s what we know about Google’s stay of execution for the cookie and what may have led to its decision to allow the digital ad ecosystem to use the identifier for a little longer.

The key details

Google will phase out third-party cookies in Chrome over a three-month period ending in late 2023.
Google will only do so after testing of cookieless ad methods in development as part of its Privacy Sandbox initiative are fully tested and deployed via APIs in its browser.
The firm plans to begin phasing out Chrome support for third-party cookies beginning in late 2022, and it expects the phase-out to last nine-months.
All of this appears to be subject to the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority, which has been investigating the competition-related impact of the company’s Privacy Sandbox approach to replacing third-party cookies.
Google will end its current trial of FLoC, its most-controversial Privacy Sandbox proposal for tracking people and targeting ads, on July 13.

Pressure from the UK

For over a year, the digital advertising industry has fretted over how to operate without third-party cookies. But Google’s decision to extend its deadline seems largely driven by government pressure.

Google’s entire business is under threat from a variety of antitrust lawsuits and investigations. That includes an antitrust investigation announced this week from the European Commission which, along with some of those suits, addresses Google’s Privacy Sandbox efforts. However, the company’s decision to extend the cookie’s deprecation seems to be in direct response to the CMA. On June 11, the agency said it will evaluate commitments from Google to adjust its much-maligned Privacy Sandbox approach, which has been subject to intense criticism from ad tech firms who say it is not as collaborative as it should be and could facilitate an even greater consolidation of power for Google over ad tech firms, digital ad buyers and ad sellers.

Google has a big incentive to appease the CMA: If it formally accepts its commitments, the CMA would terminate the Privacy Sandbox investigation it launched in January. The agency said it will consult with interested entities regarding the commitments until July 8 before it decides whether to accept them. And if it does, that does not prevent the agency from reopening the investigation.

Among Google’s commitments submitted to the CMA, the company said it would not give preference to its own systems and services in development or implementation of Privacy Sandbox methods or use “sensitive information provided by an ad tech provider or publisher to Chrome in a way that distorts competition.”

Even late last year, Google execs were hedging on timing regarding final cookie deprecation in …read more

Source:: Digiday