Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, launched in 2020, was intended to strengthen online privacy and restrict cross-site tracking via third-party cookies. However, the initiatve faced criticism and was scrutinized by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which investigated the planned phase-out of third-party cookies.
In late October, Google announced in a blog post that key Privacy Sandbox technologies including Topics, SDK Runtime, and the Attribution Reporting API would be discontinued. The reversal follows Google’s decision to retain third-party cookies in Chrome, leading the CMA to close its investigation.