The news: Google has officially backed off plans to eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome, halting its most ambitious Privacy Sandbox initiative and scrapping the planned opt-out prompt due to regulatory concerns and mixed industry feedback.

• While some Privacy Sandbox features will remain—such as IP Protection in Incognito mode—the effort to fully deprecate cookies has effectively been shelved.
• The decision ends years of preparation across the ad industry to adapt to a cookieless Chrome, the browser used by over two-thirds of internet users globally as of January 2025.