Privacy Sandbox APIs are now generally available in Chrome

Google‘s Privacy Sandbox initiative, which aims to remove third-party cookies from its browser, has just hit a major milestone. Its relevance and measurement APIs are now generally available in Chrome without requiring manual activation of browser flags or participation in beta programs. The company has left three percent of Chrome users unaffected by the change, though. This will allow it to conduct A/B testing of the feature. Privacy Sandbox APIs will be available by default to everyone over the coming months.

According to Google, this change will enable advertising providers and developers to scale the usage of the new privacy tool. Since the Privacy Sandbox APIs are available for the majority of Chrome users, companies will be able to run more effective tests of the new technologies within their products and services. This is a “significant step on the path towards a fundamentally more private web,” the company said in a press release. Google will help the industry in these testing efforts with a simulation feature later this year.

The ability to simulate the deprecation of third-party cookies will be available to companies in the third quarter of 2023. Google will start with a small percentage of users for each company. In early 2024, it will turn off third-party cookies for one percent of all Chrome users. The tech giant plans to begin mass deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024. “The countdown to the planned deprecation of third-party cookies is in full effect,” it says, suggesting that there won’t be delays anymore.

Google announced the Privacy Sandbox initiative over four years ago

Websites and apps use third-party cookies to track your online activities. These trackers can see the websites you visit or links you click on, helping companies build your online profile containing topics of your interests and other information. They use the profile to serve you tailored ads and show relevant content across the web. The problem with this approach is that your online activities aren’t as private as they should be.

Google’s Privacy Sandbox is a “privacy-preserving alternative” to third-party cookies that can fix this problem. It creates a group of people with similar interests and hides individual profiles within the group. This will prevent websites from tracking you individually, while they can still serve you tailored ads and relevant content. Google announced this initiative in August 2019 with plans to launch it in 2022.

However, it later delayed the implementation of Privacy Sandbox to 2023 because it needed more time to work with publishers, ad companies, and other industry stakeholders. Google said a half-baked application could give birth to invasive tactics such as fingerprinting. In July last year, the firm pushed back the plan to the end of 2024. It appears the tech biggie is now on track to pull it off next year.