Google will begin testing Tracking Protection, a feature that limits cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default, next month.
The feature will be rolled out January 4 to 1% of Chrome users globally, a key milestone in Google's Privacy Sandbox initiative to phase out third-party cookies in the second half of 2024, subject to addressing any remaining competition concerns from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.
The digital giant said, in a blog post published by Anthony Chavez, VP of privacy sandbox at Google, that participants for Tracking Protection are selected randomly.
"If you’re selected for Tracking Protection, you’ll see a notification. And that’s it! As you browse the web, third-party cookies will be restricted by default, limiting the ability to track you across different websites," said Chavez.
"If a site doesn’t work without third-party cookies and Chrome notices you’re having issues — like if you refresh a page multiple times — we’ll prompt you with an option to temporarily re-enable third-party cookies for that website from the eye icon on the right side of your address bar."
Chavez said that Google will provide businesses with "tools to succeed online" so that high quality content remains freely accessible — whether that’s news articles, videos, educational information, community sites or other forms of web content.
Back in March, Google's testing of interest-based advertising when it relied on a combination of privacy-preserving signals produced promising results.
Just over a month ago, GroupM announced a global post-cookie technology readiness program in partnership with Google Chrome, bringing together GroupM clients to accelerate understanding of Google Privacy Sandbox APIs and their use in advertising.
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