Google delays third-party cookie demise yet again

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reaction to yet another delay

  • Many see the repeated postponements (third since 2020) as farcical and disruptive, especially for developers who rushed major refactors to be “ready in time.”
  • Others argue the real blocker is regulation, not Google dragging its feet.

Role of regulators (especially UK CMA)

  • Several comments say the UK CMA is effectively forcing Google to maintain third‑party cookies until competition concerns around Privacy Sandbox are resolved.
  • Concern: if Google removes 3P cookies without a fair replacement, its massive first‑party footprint (Search, YouTube, etc.) would give it an even bigger ad advantage over pure ad-tech firms.
  • Some argue Google could just drop 3P cookies without a replacement; others counter CMA has explicitly warned that could be anti‑competitive. This remains contested in the thread.

Google’s incentives and conflict of interest

  • Strong sentiment that an ad company owning the dominant browser is an inherent conflict.
  • Two interpretations:
    • Google wants to kill 3P cookies but is constrained by regulators.
    • Google is designing “privacy” replacements (Privacy Sandbox, Topics, etc.) that preserve or shift tracking power in its favor, and delays serve its interests.
  • Some say Privacy Sandbox is at least as private as 3P cookies with room to improve; others call it misleadingly named, non‑private tracking tech.

Technical and compatibility concerns

  • Third‑party cookies are used for more than ads: embedded enterprise apps, iframes, SSO flows, and things like Teams or Salesforce‑style integrations.
  • Commenters mention problems with current alternatives: Storage Access API called immature; Chrome’s partitioned cookies (CHIPS) reported as buggy vs Firefox; some enterprise and embedded use cases still break.
  • Enterprises can whitelist 3P cookies via browser policy, but that adds management complexity.

Browser ecosystem & user behavior

  • Defaults matter: most users never change them; Chrome’s popularity gives Google de facto control even where it’s not OS‑default.
  • Several advocate moving to other browsers that already block 3P cookies and implement stronger tracking protections.

Related frustration: Chrome extensions MV2 → MV3

  • Developers complain that Manifest V3 migration is coerced and harms powerful extensions (e.g., ad blockers), forcing unpaid work to align with Google’s ad‑aligned platform changes.