Sorry, folks. Google isn’t going to extend the deadline for the phase out of third-party cookies in Chrome.
In an email sent Thursday afternoon to members of the W3C’s Improving Web Advertising Business Group, Marshall Vale, a Chrome product manager and a member of the group himself, wrote that “a discussion around adjusting timelines is premature.”
The full email is reprinted below.
Some in the group are taking this as Google’s official response. Google did not respond to a request from AdExchanger for comment.
The group had been planning to discuss approaching Google formally to ask for an extension, all COVID-19 things considered. The discussion was earmarked as an item on the draft agenda for the group’s most recent meeting, which took place on Thursday. But Vale’s message makes it clear that a formal approach would not be considered at the moment.
Earlier this year, Google announced that it would nix third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022.
And that plan stands, at least for now. Although Vale did not rule out revisiting the topic “as the situation evolves.”
The following is Vale’s email in full:
Hi all–
We appreciate you raising this issue. We’re closely monitoring developments around COVID-19 and the impact it’s having on our partners in the web ecosystem. These are uncertain and challenging times for everyone, and we’re committed to supporting the larger web community throughout this.
We believe that at this point, a discussion around adjusting timelines is premature. We are confident that with continued iteration and feedback, privacy-preserving and open-standard mechanisms like the Privacy Sandbox can sustain a healthy, ad-supported web in a way that will render third-party cookies obsolete. As you know, we’ve committed to only phasing out support for third party cookies once the needs of users and sites (including publishers and advertisers) are addressed. We’ve said that we can’t reach this point alone, and need the entire ecosystem to engage on these proposals, and that plan hasn’t changed.
At this time, we can’t know in what ways or for how long COVID-19 will impact the web ecosystem’s ability to experiment with these new mechanisms, test whether they work well in various situations, and develop supporting implementations. We will of course continue to revisit this topic as the situation evolves.
Regards,
Marshall
—
Marshall Vale
[email address redacted by AdExchanger]
Product Manager, Chrome Browser
