ABOUT ONE PER CENT of Chrome users—that’s 30 million people— have had third-party cookies disabled, dubbed Tracking Protection. This is part of a project by Google that will have major implications on internet advertising. Google will slowly increase that number over the next few months, and by the end of the year it’ll be everybody.
Third-party cookies are beloved by advertisers, but not always by the rest of us, as our activities are monitored so we can be targeted more effectively. Google has been under pressure to do something for a while, and announced in 2020 that it would, even promising not to invest in any alternative tracking systems. Now, it is putting its plan into action. You will have the option to turn them back on—some sites will get obstreperous if you don’t. Cookies from individual websites are okay—it’s those third-party trackers that are being culled. The advertising industry will just have to adapt, and it will.