It Seems Like Google Just Killed Privacy Sandbox

Six years after it announced Privacy Sandbox, Google revealed today that this attempt to replace third-party cookies is effectively dead.

“We’ve made the decision to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome, and will not be rolling out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies,” Google vice president Anthony Chavez writes. “Users can continue to choose the best option for themselves in Chrome’s Privacy and Security Settings.”

Privacy Sandbox has always been more theater than reality. When Google announced this effort in 2019, it described Privacy Sandbox has an open standard that would somehow protect user’s privacy while meeting the needs of advertisers. But it was nothing of the kind: Privacy Sandbox was a smokescreen that used social engineering to get users to opt in to “personalization” that would give advertisers an even clearer view of their audience than was possible with the third-party cookies they use to track us online.

Regulators saw Privacy Sandbox for what it was, triggering regulatory oversight and multiple delays as Google kept going back to the drawing board to redesign it again and again. It finally began rolling out Privacy Sandbox as an alternative to third-party cookies in Chrome in 2023, with the aim of replacing third-party cookies in the future. But now that effort is over.

Google says it was forced to back off from its plan by a “considerably evolved regulatory landscape” and an acceleration in “the adoption of privacy-enhancing technologies.” And there are “new opportunities to safeguard and secure people’s browsing experiences with AI” now, it says, which should alarm everyone.

“We’ll continue to enhance tracking protections in Chrome’s Incognito mode, which already blocks third-party cookies by default,” Chavez says. “This includes IP Protection, which we plan to launch in Q3 2025. And we’ll continue to invest in making Chrome the world’s most trusted browser, with technologies like Safe Browsing, Safety Check, built-in password protections, AI-powered security protections, and more.”

He also notes that Google will engage with partners to see whether the Privacy Sandbox APIs have any role to play going forward. My guess is that they do not, and that this is the beginning of the end of this misguided effort to serve two masters–customers and advertisers–with diametrically opposing needs.