Google is dropping plans to eliminate cookies from its Chrome web browser, making a sudden U-turn on four years of work to phase out a technology that helps businesses tracks users online.

The company had been working on retiring third-party cookies, which are snippets of code that log user information, as part of an effort to overhaul user privacy options on Chrome. But the proposal, also known as Privacy Sandbox, had instilled fears in the online advertising industry that any replacement technology would leave even less room for online ad rivals.

In a blog post on Monday, Google said it decided to abandon the plan after considering the impact of the changes on publishers, advertisers and “everyone involved in online advertising.”

The U.K.'s primary competition regulator, which has been involved in oversight of the Privacy Sandbox project, said Google will, instead, give users the option to block or allow third-party cookies on the browser.

  • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Back in my day, the Internet was a testament to human ingenuity, determination and spirit, as noteworthy as the Manhatten project or the pyramids, not just synonym for one of Google’s crappy products that will inevitably end up in the Google graveyard.

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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      4 months ago

      I got my first email address in '97. Still use it today.

      Back then the net was incredible. You could find cool groups to join and discover stuff you never knew before. I miss that.