Google has abandoned a plan to ban cookies, the small bits of code that allow advertisers to follow users around the web.

The tech giant had been preparing to replace cookies on its Chrome browser, which is the internet’s most used web browser, with a ‘privacy sandbox’.

But concerns from advertisers and some regulators, according to Google, mean that the company will now keep cookies within Chrome and offer users a choice of whether to accept them or not.

The new system may resemble Apple’s ‘ask app not to track’ system on iPhones that cost companies such as Meta billions in lost advertising.

“We’ve received feedback from a wide variety of stakeholders, including regulators like the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), publishers, web developers and standards groups, civil society, and participants in the advertising industry,” said Anthony Chavez, Google’s vice president in charge of the ‘privacy sandbox’ project.

“We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice. Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we 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.”

Regulators have reacted negatively to the announcement.

“We are disappointed that Google has changed its plans and no longer intends to deprecate third party cookies from the Chrome browser,” said Stephen Bonner, deputy commissioner at the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office, the British equivalent of Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner.

We are disappointed that Google has changed its plans

“From the start of Google’s Sandbox project in 2019, it has been our view that blocking third party cookies would be a positive step for consumers.

“Despite Google’s decision, we continue to encourage the digital advertising industry to move to more private alternatives to third party cookies and not to resort to more opaque forms of tracking.”

However, other regulatory bodies had expressed concern that Google’s ‘privacy sandbox’ alternative could favour its own advertising business over that of others.

Many advertisers will breathe a sigh of relief given how much of their business is built in to cookie infrastructure.

But campaigners for a more privacy-focused internet experience have expressed dismay.

“This is an extremely disappointing decision that really just highlights Google’s commitment to their own profits over users’ privacy,” Lena Cohen, staff technologist for the advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said in comments reported by The Register.

Reporting on:independent.ie