Google plans to eliminate support for third-party cookies in Chrome over the subsequent two years.
Google’s announcement, which comes well after Chrome’s main competitors have made similar updates, might be a serious win for privacy advocates who have long decried the utilization of cookies for enabling companies to surreptitiously track users’ browsing habits.
But, as we’ve previously noted, Google’s attempts to limit cookies could also give the corporate a serious leg abreast of advertising competitors, because it would scale back third-parties’ ability to stay tabs on users.
Some quick context: cookies are employed by websites to essentially « remember » who you’re.
This will be useful for, say, logging into an account or keeping items in a web handcart, but cookies also are one among the first ways digital advertisers keep tabs on your online whereabouts.
That may be great for advertisers, but it also makes the web feel creepy, which is why other browser makers, including Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox, have also made moves to dam the type of cookies that track you across websites, like those employed by Facebook.
Some browsers have reacted to those concerns by blocking third-party cookies, but we believe this has unintended consequences which will negatively impact both users and therefore the web ecosystem, » Schuh wrote. »
By undermining the business model of the many ad-supported websites, blunt approaches to cookies encourage the utilization of opaque techniques like fingerprinting (an invasive workaround to exchange cookies), which may actually reduce user privacy and control. »
But considering that Google Chrome is that the most dominant browser, Google’s eventual actions will likely be far more influential than its competitors — for better or worse.
The bad news is that this shift toward a (slightly) more private internet could still take an extended time.
Until then, a minimum of we’ve Safari and Firefox for anti-Facebook tracking.
