Google has abruptly reversed course on four years of work to phase out a technology that helps businesses follow consumers online and is abandoning plans to remove cookies from its Chrome web browser.
The business has been working on revamping Chrome’s user privacy settings, which included removing third-party cookies—shortcuts of code that record user information.
However, the online advertising industry was concerned that any successor technology would leave even less space for rivals in online advertising due to the idea, also known as Privacy Sandbox.
Google announced in a blog post on Monday that it had opted against moving forward with the proposal after taking into account how the changes would affect publishers, advertisers, and “everyone involved in online advertising.
Instead, Google will offer users the choice to either enable or disable third-party cookies on their browser, according to the U.K.’s main competition regulator, which has been supervising the Privacy Sandbox initiative.
According to Anthony Chavez, vice president of Privacy Sandbox, Google would,
“Introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”
“We will interact with the industry as we implement this and are currently discussing this new course with regulators.”
Laptops 1000Cookies are used by advertisers to target users with adverts, but privacy advocates claim that cookies can be used to track users around the internet.
Although Google first stated that it would stop using cookies in 2020, there have been several delays in the project’s completion.
The most popular web browser in the world is Chrome, and many others, including Microsoft’s Edge, are built using the Chromium technology developed by the firm.
