Cookies have been with us almost since the beginning of the Internet. Thanks to them, large Internet companies can track us wherever we go, learn from us, collect information and then use that data to, for example, display personalized advertising. However, cookies have become outdated and dangerous, and there are increasing legal issues with them. For this reason, Google has decided to take action on the matter and launch its solution for Chrome: privacy sandbox.
Privacy Sandbox by Google is an alternative to classic Internet cookies that seeks to eliminate the tracking of individual users, opting for a type of tracking based on groups of users. In this way, the personal information of the users will not be used for commercial purposes, but the user will belong to one (or several) more global groups and, through an ID, will receive the corresponding offers.
Although we have been listening to Google talk about this great change in the way the Internet works for some time, it was not until recently that we were finally able to find out when cookies will stop working. And they will, without going any further, throughout the coming yearin 2024. At least, in Google Chrome and other browsers based on it.
Thus, Google is already beginning to notify users about the change, indicating that it is a privacy improvementEspecially when it comes to advertising. Thus, from Google Chrome 115, users will begin to see a new announcement, by force, in which we will be told about all these changes.
This message will not appear all at once for all users, but rather it will be displayed progressively, and it may take up to several months for 100% of Chrome users to see this message. And the most important thing is that we will not be able to ignore this message, but we will have to scroll through the ad to decide if we want to activate this function or not. Until we do so, the browser will be blocked.
And how does Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox work?
Instead of creating tracking cookies, this feature relies on the browsing history. After activating it, Chrome automatically analyzes our history, processes the information, and assigns us one or more groups based on our interests. In this way, based on these interests, it will show us a series of personalized ads, the same as the rest of the members of our group.
In addition, we will have a new ad settings section, which we can enter through the internal URL “chrome://settings/adPrivacy”. Within this section we will find all the information about the ads that appear while we browse. The three options will be:
- Ad Themes: We will see the types of ads we see based on our web history.
- Ads suggested by sites: Some websites can recommend Google to show us certain ads, and this will be the site where we will see it.
- Ad Measurement: allows us to choose if we want websites and manufacturers to be able, or not, to know the impact of their ads on our browser.
Cookies are dead, but is the alternative better? We believe so.