TL;DR: Google announced this week that they have delayed their “Privacy Sandbox” initiative, which would have completely killed third-party cookies on Google Chrome in 2021. This initiative has been pushed back to 2023.

Is it windy today, or is that a collective sigh of relief from the marketing world?

On June 24, Google announced that they are delaying the launch of their Privacy Sandbox initiative, originally slated to launch this year, until late 2023. Phew!

Cookies are little snippets of data placed on a person’s computer by the user’s web browser. They’re generally useful. First party cookies work almost like little bookmarks for people who have visited a website, doing things like keeping you logged in to sites if you want to be, and holding items in a shopping cart if you accidentally navigate away.

Third party cookies can track people’s online behaviors. If you’re an advertiser, third-party cookies allow you to to better target people who haven’t visited your website yet but might be interested in your product or service. If you’re a consumer, they can also be useful, as the advertising you see will more often be something you may be interested in.

What is the Google Privacy Sandbox?

Per Google, the Privacy Sandbox initiative aims to create web technologies that both protect people’s privacy online and give companies and developers the tools to build thriving digital businesses to keep the web open and accessible to everyone, now, and for the future.

Here’s why we’re all breathing a little easier today

While we all knew this was coming, there was some low-key panic happening in the industry. It wasn’t just because marketers were worried about losing access to new audiences, or losing efficiency in their ad buys. It’s because there was so much uncertainty stemming from a few factors:

• Google did not give visibility into what this would look like. Often, when Google makes a big change, they tell us all about how the changes will actually work well in advance of when they do it so we can all prepare. But in this case, no tools or information was given yet, so many of us were tapping our feet a little nervously in anticipation.

• The AdTech community hasn’t had time to create a good alternative. Without widespread adoption of a new solution that can both preserve consumer privacy and allow advertisers to target new audiences, advertisers will be forced to sacrifice ad dollars, trying things out to see what works. It reminds me of when I was a child and my family was forced to decide between a BetaMax and VCR system to watch movies at home. It was a big decision, because if you chose wrong, you would be investing money in something that would be obsolete. (VCRs won that battle until DVDs came out a decade later. Now, streaming video is enjoying the last laugh.)

• Many people are still nervous about the power the Privacy Sandbox will give Google. If Google takes away the ability to get data from third parties, but Google still has first party data on users, (86.6% of all search takes place on Google), then Google holds all the cards and Google will still be able to sell targeted advertising. So, in this scenario, if you want to target new audiences, you’ll be pretty much forced to go to Google to do it. And Google will be able to charge a premium for it, because they won’t have any competitors

So, what does this mean?

Well, while it may appear that Google is as indecisive as I am at an ice cream store, I think they were just a little too ambitious with the timing.

Privacy Sandbox is happening, folks.

So start talking to your marketing team NOW about how they’re planning to stay ahead of these changes and all the others that Google is making.

In the meantime, cookies, you’re living to see another day. 🍪