Google releases detailed timeline for Privacy Sandbox

However, the timeline is not yet confirmed as Google notes information may change and will be updated monthly

Following a series of delays, Google has released a detailed timeline for Privacy Sandbox, designed to phase out the third-party tracking cookie in browser Chrome.

The coming sandbox includes products FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) and Fledge (First Locally-Executed Decision over Groups Experiment) which will be ready for adoption in the third quarter of 2022, with full implementation expected one year later.

However, the timeline is not yet confirmed as Google notes information may change and will be updated monthly.

RTB House is one of the four major advertising partners working closely with Google during the cookieless transition.

RTB House’s Director of Global Inventory, Lukasz Wlodarczyk has released the company’s prediction on what is coming next for FLoC, stating, we expect that in the near future Google Chrome will be presenting a new, more privacy-preserving iteration of FLoC. This new version is expected to address both private and public feedback that Google received from multiple sources, such as an extensive Privacy analysis of FLoC from Mozilla.

In March this year, Google began testing a new piece of web technology called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) as part of its new Privacy Sandbox initiative. Google proposed FLoC as a replacement for third-party cookies and touted it as a win for privacy. However, privacy advocates and third-party browsers have strongly advocated against FLoC, calling it a step in the wrong direction. Now, Google has released an updated timeline detailing when it plans to roll out various new web technologies, including FLoC, as part of the Privacy Sandbox initiative.

When Google announced its plan to kill cross-site cookies in 2020, it said the phase-out would happen within two years. However, as per the new timeline, that has been pushed over to 2023, according to reports. Now Google says it’s aiming to phase out third-party cookies over a three-month period, starting in mid-2023 and ending in late 2023.