Goodbye to Privacy Sandbox: Google officially cancels its project to replace third-party cookies

The Google project known as Privacy Sandbox has come to an end. The company has confirmed that it is withdrawing the initiative it launched in 2019 with the aim of creating a future without third-party cookies on the web. According to an official statement, the decision is due to the “low levels of adoption” that the technologies developed under this umbrella have had, marking the closure of one of the most relevant projects for the future of digital advertising and privacy. This comes after Google integrated Privacy Sandbox into Android 16 and the rest of its products.

The company has clarified that not only are some of its technologies being abandoned, but the entire “Privacy Sandbox” initiative and branding is being completely retired. Although Google assures that it will continue working to improve privacy in Chrome and Android, this move represents a significant change of direction. The company states that it will use the “learnings obtained” of the project to collaborate with the industry in the development of new technologies for the web.

A project marked by delays and regulatory pressure

Privacy Sandbox was born as a set of open standards designed to allow personalized advertising without the need to share user identification data. However, its development was riddled with obstacles from the beginning. Google’s plans to eliminate third-party cookies were repeatedly postponed due to regulatory delays and obstaclesboth in the United Kingdom and the United States, where authorities have expressed concern about potential harm to smaller advertisers.

A few months ago, Google decided to backtrack and announced that it would not remove third-party cookies in Chrome. In fact, in April of this same year, the company announced that it would maintain the current approach of offering users a choice over these cookies, ensuring at that time that the Privacy Sandbox initiative would remain alive. The current cancellation represents a direct contradiction with what had been stated just a few months ago.

Despite the closure of the project, not all technologies will disappear. Google has confirmed that it will continue to support tools such as CHIPS and FedCMwhich have been widely adopted to improve cookie privacy and identity management. It will also maintain Private State Tokens to combat fraud and continue working on the Attribution standard to measure the impact of advertising campaigns anonymously.