Cookie Deprecation is Dead: What Should the Industry Do Now?

After what feels like half a lifetime discussing how best to prepare for a cookieless future and arming ourselves for the great third-party cookie demise, Google has abandoned its deprecation plan for Chrome. Surprising? We’ll let you be the judge of that. 

In a blog post published on Monday, Anthony Chavez – vice-president of Privacy Sandbox – briefly detailed Google’s new plan. Instead of going through with third-party cookie deprecation, Google now intends to “introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing”.

Users will be able to adjust their privacy choices at any time. At this point, the pivot is fairly ambiguous and nonspecific. The Privacy Sandbox APIs will still be available to all those who wish to continue using them, backed by further investment aimed at enhancing privacy and utility. 

So, what now? With Chrome’s cookieless future no longer looming, the landscape suddenly looks quite different. Google’s latest deprecation delay had shifted the deadline to 2025, giving industry members even more time to get their post-cookie plan in order.

Although the pressing need to get alternative solutions in place has decreased, advertisers would be foolish to abandon the pursuit of third-party cookie alternatives entirely. For quite some time now, privacy-centric solutions have been an obvious choice for many advertisers as increasing focus is placed on consumer privacy. 

We asked leaders from across the advertising landscape: what should the industry do now? 

We’ve been saying for quite some time that Google's cookie deprecation saga was a mere distraction – a red herring diverting attention from the bigger issue of widespread signal loss. As Chrome shifts to offering consumers the choice between cookies, Sandbox, or opting out completely, the future of people-based signals looks even more cloudy.

With 70% of consumers already masking their data from profiling, the focus needs to shift to intent-led targeting. This approach offers targeted reach without the complications of profiling, IDs, or cookies – across all browsers.

Carl White, CEO, Nano Interactive