Coming End for Tracking Cookies in Google Chrome
There’s all sorts of examples where something that was once an extra, an addition, or whatever else it is you’d call it becomes much more integral. That’s definitely the case with cookies, and of course we’re not talking about anything edible at all considering what we write about here each week always has some relation to websites and web hosting. Instead we’re talking http cookies, and if you’re not familiar with what they are here is a brief explanation. Cookies are text files with small pieces of data used to identify your computer as you use a computer network, and HTTP cookies are used to identify specific users and improve a person’s web browsing experience.
Now in that sense they are something of an extra, as the extent to which a person is pleased with their browsing has no relation to whether they can literally browse or not. There are factors that will determine that, and this is where any Canadian web hosting provider will chime in and say that none of that even gets off the ground unless you’ve quality Linux-based web hosting behind the sites you direct your browser of-choice to. But cookies themselves haven’t been such an integral component of a website. Until recently that is, as what has happened is that for some websites they are unable to function properly without them.
And so all of this is relevant now with news that tracking cookies will no longer be utilized with Google Chrome – the browser of-choice for most nowadays and likely to continue as it – and the reason for that being to improve user privacy and stop websites from tracking people as they visit different URLs. The last part of that is something that many people have put a lot of emphasis on when it comes privacy concerns related to how they use the Internet. So this is what we are going to dig deeper into with this blog entry.
Option to Re-Enable
All this is happening as part of Google’s Privacy Sandbox project. January 4th of next month is when they will start testing a new Chrome feature called Tracking Protection that will automatically block tracking cookies by default so that data cannot be followed around the web. But the question then becomes what if a site relies on cookies to function as needed without them.
The answer there is that if Chrome determines that you need to – for example – refresh a page many times then you’ll be allowed to re-enable cookies for that site. Google has also said it will initially roll out Tracking Protection to 1% of Chrome users at the beginning of 2024, so most people are unlikely to even be aware of this to begin with or have it affect their web browsing. It is only once we reach the second half of the year that they are aiming to be blocking Cookies for the majority of users in Chrome, so it's definitely something to be aware of.
Circling back the functionality of http cookies, we can expand on how they’re not just for snooping on your web browsing habits. They have other uses, like keeping you logged in on various websites. This sort of functionality needs to be maintained throughout this switch, so Google has provided alternatives. Most notably with APIs that developers can use in certain cases, and they’re also encouraging developers to review their cookie use to guarantee their sites remain working once the change becomes wholesale.
Adjoining Interests
Google is not the first to do this though, although the reason their move is more newsworthy is simply related to how it is the default browser for nearly everyone these days. far from the first browser developer to restrict third-party cookies. Apple’s Safari, Firefox and Brave have had trackers blocked in this way for a long time already, and this has already given them some renown as being more secure browsers than Chrome. Keeping pace with that is likely a big part of why Google is doing this.
One of the last things we should also take into account here is how tracking cookies are an important part of online advertising, and Google has immense business interests in that. The belief is that this more measured tactic means Google will be able to give website owners tools to ensure their sites keep working, instead of having them lock content beyond paywalls or move to more covert forms of tracking because of different interests.
In the bigger picture of all that Chrome is incredibly popular, and enjoys a huge lead in usage among web browsers. Google likely sees that improving the privacy assurances it can offer to those who use Chrome as their browser will very much be in their interest and will likely be welcomed by privacy advocates. Despite the slow rollout a huge swath of internet users will get a much more private experience over the course of 2024..
