Shedding light on…n°8 - Privacy Sandbox: a collection of tools for third-party cookieless online advertising (update)

The online advertising ecosystem largely relies on the use of third-party cookies to improve ad relevance. Wishing to offer a technological alternative to the current system, deemed too intrusive, Google launched its Privacy Sandbox initiative in 2019. In this latest instalment of "Shedding light on...", PEReN updates its analysis of the technical and economic stakes of the American giant's solutions.

To better protect privacy, Mozilla and Apple have progressively eliminated or restricted the use of third-party cookies in their browsers. Following in the footsteps of its competitors, Google launched the Privacy Sandbox project in 2019. Its goal is to integrate, within its global market leading Chrome browser, a suite of tools providing for some of the advertising uses covered by third-party cookies, while limiting the tracking of Internet users. After several postponements, Google is now expecting to disallow third-party cookies in Chrome in 2025.

To date, the Privacy Sandbox is not a consensual and accepted move. On the one hand, browsers competing with Chrome are largely opposed to the integration of advertising tools. Secondly, the solution is struggling to demonstrate its ability to monetize online content as well as third-party cookie technologies. Unlike websites that require users to log in (notably social networks), freely accessible websites (including most news sites) are at risk of seeing their advertising revenue decrease if Privacy Sandbox ads turn out less effective than those based on third-party cookie targeting.

Since Google announced third-party cookies would stop being supported by Chrome, a number of players have been working on alternative solutions. Some encompass privacy protection mechanisms, while others continue to access detailed users' browsing habits to infer preferences and interests without the need for third-party cookies. These new tools could complement or try to compete with the Privacy Sandbox.

The year 2024 should see a shift in the online advertising market, be it wider adoption of the Privacy Sandbox or the use of alternative solutions.

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A look back at... (Re)read the first Shedding light on...dedicated to the Privacy Sandbox project (n°3, March 2022)