Chrome has begun to roll out the various Privacy Sandbox APIs. Starting this week users will begin to see prompts about this new feature on browser startup, after upgrading to Chrome v115.
This prompt is a Opt-Out style prompt, selecting ‘Got It‘ will automatically enable the various APIs bundled in this update. To be clear, these APIs are alternative ways to track you, albeit slightly less intrusive than the 3rd party cookies they are seeking to replace. If you wish to opt-out of these APIs, you’ll need to select ‘Settings‘ which brings up the following menu:
You will then need to go into each of the three offerings, and toggle the setting to ‘off’. If you originally agreed, and want to see the information collected, or changed your mind and wish to disable the features, that is possible. You’ll find the above settings in Chrome Settings > Privacy and security > Ad privacy.
Which APIs are included?
Per the press release, APIs in this release include the anticipated Topics API, as well as Protected Audience, Attribution Reporting, Private Aggregation, Shared Storage and Fenced Frames.
It should be noted that several of these APIs have failed to achieve W3C Standard status, and have documented disapproval by other browser developers. Both the Webkit (Apple) and Mozilla (Firefox) teams have stated they have no intention of adding support for the Topics API for example. Google faces an uphill battle when it comes to achieving buy in.
Should Google fail to achieve some sort of industry standard, the online advertising ecosystem will likely fragment, resulting in audiences reachable through Google’s APIs and those whom will effectively go ‘dark’ and become unreachable through those same methods.
Given that Chrome amounts for roughly 65% of the market, this could force advertising platforms to develop and maintain multiple targeting and attribution methods (to a greater extant than exists today). This may result in additional complexity to marketing efforts going forward. Time will tell how this plays out in execution.
Rollout Timeline
Starting the week of July 24th, users of Chrome will increasingly be prompted to enable the APIs, as a gradual rollout occurs. Google is a aiming to have the majority of users prompted prior to September. I expect since the default is ‘opt-in’ that the majority of Chrome users will therefore “consent” to having the feature enabled giving Google a wide array of data points to leverage for the continued transition. It remains to be seen if this “agreement” to tracking is considered acceptable in light of various data protection regulations around the world which may impact the rollout.
Starting in Q1 of 2024, Google will turn off 3rd party cookies for 1% of users, escalating based on testing in order to begin the 3rd party cookie phase out by the end of Q3 2024. This leaves just over a year for advertisers and publishers to update their offerings to accommodate the transition.
If all goes as intended, prior to the Christmas season in 2024 we will see the phase out of 3rd party cookies complete, and with it – major changes to how online advertising is done. Advertisers, advertising platforms, and publishers will have to determine how they will continue to function in this new world, and time is running out to get everything in order.