Google is gradually phasing out cookies. In a blog post, Google explicitly stated that it “will not build alternate identifiers to track individuals as they browse across the web” after the third-party cookies are phased out.
“Instead, our web products will be powered by privacy-preserving APIs which prevent individual tracking while still delivering results for advertisers and publishers,” Google says.
“Advances in aggregation, on-device processing and other privacy-preserving technologies offer a clear path to replacing individual identifiers.”
Third party cookies allows advertisers to track you as you move between websites, giving advertisers a better idea of what your interests are. These hyper-targeted ads are very valuable, resulting in the creation of an ad industry whereby individual user data is proliferated across “thousands of companies,” according to Google.
“We realise this means other providers may offer a level of user identity for ad tracking across the web that we will not — like PII graphs based on people’s email addresses.”says Google.
Google also states this practice has led to users not trusting advertisers or the internet. Advertising is still the primary way many companies on the internet make money which is why Google states it is moving away from third-party cookies and more to a ” more privacy-first web”.