I third-party cookies are small text files stored by the browser on your device. The main feature that distinguishes them from first-party cookies is that they are set by a different domain than the site the user is visiting. In other words, while i first party cookies are generated by the website being consulted, third-party ones are created by other domains.
First-party cookies are often technical cookies, that is, they are used to note information about user behavior on the site, such as browsing preferences, personalized settings, products placed in a cart in the case of an e-commerce platform and so on. Conversely, third-party cookies are used by advertising networks and companies that analyze user behavior across multiple websites, with the aim of collecting detailed information on users. interests not browsing habits.
The massive use of tracking cookie, triggered the intervention of the European legislator some time ago. As also summarized by the Europen Privacy Guarantor, website publishers are today required to collect the explicit and informed consent of users before releasing any tracking cookie.
The program that bans third-party cookies and replaces them with Privacy Sandbox
Presented in Europe just a few days ago, the Google Privacy Sandbox platform aims to balance the interests of users with those of advertisers and online publishers. The system proposed by Google, which will soon be implemented in Chromeavoid using any cookies capable of track users and gives the web browser the task of sharing some information about each user’s interests.
In his technical analysis, Google explains that data collection takes place in a manner that fully respects privacy, without raking IP address and other information that may uniquely identify a user.
Thus, as confirmed by the timeline shared by Google, by March 2024 the cookie support third party will be disabled for 1% of users. The phase of setting aside third-party cookies will then come to life in the summer, between July and September, when Google plans to extend the Privacy Sandbox program to a much larger audience of installations.
As this message confirms, opting out of support for third-party cookies will begin with Chromium, the free browser from which much of the code underlying how Chrome works is derived. The Mountain View company will therefore continue with stable versions of its closed-source browser (Chrome).
It goes without saying that the work being carried out on Chromium has the clear objective of introducing similar treatment for tracking cookies also on third-party browsers. In fact, there are many Web browsers that various developers have derived directly from Chromium code.
How to preview the changes introduced from 2024
There is a simple mechanism that anyone who wants to simulate, already today, the abolition of third-party cookies can use in order to analyze their impact.
In fact, all you have to do is type chrome://flags#test-third-party-cookie-phaseout in the Chrome address bar then set to Enabled the voice Test Third Party Cookie Phaseout and then restart the browser for the change to take effect.
The setting is part of the many advanced adjustments available in the form of Chrome flags.