From CNET: Years after rival web browsers made the move, Google Chrome on Jan. 4 will begin blocking websites from using third-party cookies, the easiest way to track our online behavior as we move around the web.
The browser will block third-party cookies for 1% of users on computers and Android phones, said Anthony Chavez, leader of Google's Privacy Sandbox project, in a blog post. Google will extend the block to all Chrome users by the end of 2024 under a schedule that has been pushed back several times in recent years.
The Chrome change, even though it so far only affects a small portion of people, is a momentous shift for the web. Cookies, small text files that websites store on phones and PCs, have been used nearly since the dawn of the web, and ejecting them has been tough despite a growing effort to protect privacy online. Chrome is the dominant browser, accounting for 63% of web usage, according to analytics firm StatCounter.
Major browser competitors, including Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Brave, began blocking cookies years ago, and Microsoft Edge offers the same with a "strict" privacy setting, but Google moved more slowly. It was more cautious about undermining the online advertising industry, which supports many websites as well as advertisers. And the UK's Competition and Markets Authority intervened in 2021 with concerns that Chrome blocking third-party cookies would give an unfair advantage to Google's advertising business by letting the company track behavior on its own websites without third-party cookies.
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