Google delays plans to block third-party cookies from early 2022 to late 2023, says it wants to find ways to protect privacy without hurting ad-dependent sites
With Lots of Entry Points Lane Ellis / B2B Marketing Blog : B2B Marketing News: Brand Social Media Expectations Study, Google Postpones Cookie Changes, & B2B Buyer Behavior Report Sumit Adhikari / Android Headlines : Third-Party Cookies Will Be Around Longer As Google Delays Privacy Sandbox Jonathan Keane / Silicon Republic : Google pushes its cookie ban back to 2023 Seb Joseph / Digiday : Google's delayed cookie cull is an inevitable intermission to its fractious pursuit of privacy protections Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab : The Cookie Monster won't be coming for the web's most popular browser for another year-plus Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times : Google delays a privacy change to its Chrome web browser. Tweets: John Wilander / @johnwilander : Privacy for Chrome users will have to wait another two years. “Google has delayed a major privacy change to its Chrome browser, pushing back a plan to block third-party cookies until late 2023” https://www.cnet.com/... I'm sad for people and for the web. Hiroshi Lockheimer / @lockheimer : We're committed to building a more private web that works for everyone. We're doing this work in the open so we can get feedback from privacy advocates, policy makers, and the ads industry. Update to our timeline below. https://blog.google/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : again, read this report. it gets a level or two deeper at true google motivations and risks if Google doesn't delay all of this. remember competition authorities are closing in integrating data policy. just last week, UK said Google's promises would be legally binding. https://twitter.com/... Cristina Caffarra / @caffar3cristina : Oh great, back to Big Tech playbook of blaming European GDPR for NOT doing anything vaguely pro-consumer. “We'd love to do something to help, you know, but GDPR is really standing in the way...” https://www.cnet.com/... @iododds : NEW: Google has delayed its grand plan to banish cookies from Chrome til late 2023 after reaching a deal with British regulators to assuage monopoly concerns. The agreement gives UK officials up to 120 days to approve the final product before it goes live https://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Note: if Google gets away with this, BIG WINNERS: - Google (protects surveillance using regulators/industry as its justification) - adtech companies with margins off surveillance (they were otherwise screwed) - advertisers (protects microtargeting under pressure on Apple devices) Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Today would be a good day to embrace Brave, Firefox, Safari, DuckDuckGo, et al as your default browsers and get off the Chrome crack. It's bad for everyone but Google and its adtech serfs who live off its marketplace and your data. Rowan Merewood / @rowan_m : It's time to plan *your own* roadmap for what needs to happen with third-party cookies on your sites and services! In other words... Ask not when third-party cookies will be phased out - ask when you can phase out third-party cookies on your site. 🍪⏳ https://blog.google/... https://twitter.com/... Brian Fung / @b_fung : Google says it's pushing back plans to end support for third-party cookies in Chrome to mid-2023 as it addresses UK antitrust concerns over the proposed replacement: https://blog.google/... Lara O'Reilly / @larakiara : Which I suppose means a bunch of ad tech companies will probably invest more time and money into incompatible solutions that they'll end up having to kill. https://twitter.com/... Jerry Daykin / @jdaykin : So Google is delaying the death of the cookie until at least 2023 - but Chrome is a symptom not the disease. Forward thinking marketers still need to be building future-ready data & marketing approaches that reflect shifting consumer privacy expectations: https://www.cnet.com/... Ari Paparo / @aripap : OMG, Chrome not getting rid of cookies for another two years. My god, how they botched this: https://www.cnet.com/... Justin Brookman / @justinbrookman : You can accommodate both privacy and competition concerns by getting rid of third-party cookies and then replacing them with nothing. https://www.theverge.com/... Ashkan Soltani / @ashk4n : So disappointing @Google: In addition to a) tracking users in incognito mode b) not supporting ‘global privacy controls’ @googlechrome is the only major browser to allow 3rd party cookies, permitting hundreds of companies to track you across the web https://blog.google/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Google's original two-year plan to phase out Chrome's third-party cookies made the browser a focal point for publishers and adtech firms dependent on cross-site advertising. The delay gives Google more time to develop Privacy Sandbox protections; a subsequent rollout timeline shows that the replacement framework, not simply the cookie deadline, is the operative transition.
First-order effects
- Chrome users, adtech firms, and ad-dependent publishers retain the existing third-party-cookie system through the newly delayed timetable.
- Google gains additional time to test Privacy Sandbox proposals and accommodate the UK regulatory review process described in the agreement.
Second-order effects
- Adtech firms and publishers avoid an immediate measurement and targeting transition, while critics argue the extension preserves Google's surveillance advantage.
- The longer runway shifts competitive attention toward whether Privacy Sandbox can support publishers without strengthening Google's control over advertising infrastructure.
Third-order effects
- The later sequence of further delays and phased testing indicates that browser privacy changes are becoming contingent on technical validation and regulatory scrutiny rather than a fixed Chrome product schedule.
The trend: Third-party-cookie deprecation is evolving from a browser deadline into a regulator- and ecosystem-gated migration toward Google-designed advertising alternatives.