Google on Thursday announced that it will start testing a new feature called “Tracking Protection” starting January 4, 2024, to 1% of Chrome users as part of its efforts to deprecate third-party cookies in the web browser.
The setting is designed to limit “cross-site tracking by restricting website access to third-party cookies by default.
Tracking Protection in Chrome, also known as the “Enhanced Tracking Protection” feature, aims to increase user privacy by blocking certain types of trackers, including third-party cookies, which are often used by advertisers and other entities to track users across different websites.
When this feature is enabled in Chrome, it blocks third-party cookies from websites that users have not directly interacted with. Third-party cookies are those set by domains other than the one directly visited by the user. For example, if you visit a website (first-party) and it embeds resources or content from other domains (third-party), these third-party domains often set cookies to track user behavior.
Chrome’s Tracking Protection prevents these third-party cookies from being stored or accessed by default. Instead of allowing them to track users across various sites, these cookies are blocked, thereby limiting the ability of advertisers or tracking services to create detailed profiles of users’ browsing habits and behaviors.
By blocking these third-party cookies, Chrome’s Tracking Protection helps enhance user privacy and control over their online activities. However, it’s important to note that this feature might affect the functionality of some websites or services that rely on third-party cookies for legitimate purposes, such as login authentication, analytics, or personalized content delivery. In such cases, users may need to manually adjust settings or exceptions to allow cookies from specific sites they trust while still benefiting from enhanced privacy protections.