Google Is Keeping Cookies in Chrome After All

https://developers.google.com/privacy-sandbox/3pcd/chips

you can still enable CHIPS in chrome but it won't happen for the mass after all.

In a major reversal, Google is ending a plan to eliminate cookies in its Chrome browser after four years of efforts, delays and disagreements with the advertising industry.

The decision to keep the pervasive tracking technology known as "cookies" in Chrome comes after a series of setbacks, as both digital-advertising companies and regulators objected to the plan and to Google's proposed replacement technologies.

Chrome users can already choose to block cookies in the browser's settings. Now, instead of eliminating them, Google will present users with a prompt to decide whether to turn cookies on or off, said the U.K. privacy regulator, which has been overseeing Google's plan to block cookies.

"We recognize this transition requires significant work by many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers, and everyone involved in online advertising," Anthony Chavez, vice president of Google's Privacy Sandbox, the company's initiative to replace cookies, wrote in a blog post Monday. "In light of this, we are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice...We're discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out."

Google first announced the plan to kill cookies in 2020, saying it would do so within two years to help protect users' privacy when surfing the linternet. Advertisers objected, saying that Google's plan to replace cookies would force them to shift spending to the search giant's digital-ad products.

In 2021, U.K. regulators opened an investigation into whether the plan would hurt competition in digital advertising. Google pledged to collaborate with the regulator and committed to give the agency at least 60 days notice before removing cookies to review any plan, and potentially impose changes to it.

As that investigation dragged on, Google's schedule to kill cookies by 2022 slipped.

In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that the British government's Information Commissioner's Office would issue a report criticizing Google's proposed replacement technologies as deeply flawed. A few days later Google said it would delay cookies' demise beyond last announced target date of the end of this year.

It should say Googles real customers instead of the ad industry, or at least mentioned.

some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41038586

H/t garciasn