Google Delays Privacy Sandbox Rollout for Third Time

Facing pressure from antitrust regulators, Google announced today that it is delaying the rollout of its third-party cookie replacement for a third time. The online giant originally expected to fully roll out its controversial Privacy Sandbox functionality by the end of 2021.

“We recognize that there are ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators, and developers, and will continue to engage closely with the entire ecosystem,” a Google statement explains. “It’s also critical that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has sufficient time to review all evidence including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June. Given both of these significant considerations, we will not complete third-party cookie deprecation during the second half of Q4 [as previously expected].”

Google began work on Privacy Sandbox in 2019, and it began a slow, measured rollout of the technology in its Chrome web browser in September 2023. And without getting into the tortured history, suffice it to say that Google’s attempts to balance the needs of advertisers with users have never sat well with anyone outside the advertising industry.

It certainly raised some hackles with the regulators at the CMA, which raised no fewer than 39 “concerns” with Privacy Sandbox back in January and ordered that they be addressed before it could approve Google’s plans.

“We welcome Google’s announcement clarifying the timing of third-party cookie deprecation,” a UK CMA statement reads. “This will allow time to assess the results of industry tests and resolve remaining issues. Under the commitments, Google has agreed to resolve our remaining competition concerns before going ahead with third-party cookie deprecation. Working closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) [which raised its own Privacy Sandbox concerns earlier this month], we expect to conclude this process by the end of 2024.”

But that won’t be enough time to roll out the Privacy Sandbox by the end of the year, and so the online giant now plans on proceeding with the rollout in early 2025.