Google’s new Chrome feature will give third-party cookies the boot

A few months ago, Google detailed how it wanted to get rid of third-party cookies in the Chrome browser in 2024. The company will soon start to follow through on that mission by testing a new privacy feature for Chrome.

Google has announced it will begin its Privacy Sandbox initiative to phase out third-party cookies by testing a feature called “Tracking Protection.” The new feature reportedly restricts websites from accessing third-party cookies that track your actions across the internet.

The test is scheduled to begin on January 4, 2024, and since it’s just a test, Tracking Protection won’t be available to everyone. Google says the feature will only roll out to 1% of Chrome users globally. The tech giant adds that it plans to phase out third-party cookies for everyone by the second half of 2024, specifically Q3 2024 — depending on competition concerns from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

Who gets to be a part of the lucky 1% will be decided at random, Google says. If you’re picked, you’ll be notified the next time you open up Chrome on desktop or on Android. Tracking Protection will also be enabled by default, so you won’t have to go into your settings to enable it.

In the case that a website doesn’t work without these cookies, users will be able to temporarily re-enable cookies on that website. To do this, the user will have to navigate to the address bar where they will see an eye icon to the right. Clicking on that icon will open up a box where you can toggle the feature on or off.

In its blog from October, Google mentioned sites that rely on third-party cookies will be able to request for extra time to make sure their websites work. However, these websites will only be given a limited amount of time to make the necessary changes.