Google just disabled cookies for 30 million Chrome users. Here’s how to tell if you’re one of them.

Today is the first of many moments of silence to come Google’s multi-year plan to end cookies. As of this morning, the Chrome web browser has disabled cookies for 1% of its users (approximately 30 million people).At the end of the year, cookies will disappear forever in Chrome-Kind of.

To privacy advocates, cookies are the original sin of the Internet. For much of the web’s history, cookies were one of the primary ways technology companies tracked your online behavior.For targeted advertising and many Other types of tracking, the website relies on cookies made by other companies, such as Google. These are called “third-party cookies” and they are built into the infrastructure of the Internet. They are everywhere. If you visit Gizmodo without an ad blocker or other type of tracking protection, we may serve you some cookies ourselves. sorry.

Back in 2019, years of bad news about privacy misdeeds by Google, Facebook, and other tech companies were swirling to the point where Silicon Valley had to address the issue. Google, which makes most of its revenue from tracking you and showing you ads online, announced it is launching a project to eliminate third-party cookies in Chrome. Approximately 60% of Internet users use Chrome, so Google’s abandonment of the technology will effectively eliminate cookies forever.

“At a time when people are more reliant than ever on the free services and content the web provides, we are making one of the biggest changes to the way the internet works,” said Victor Wong, senior director of product management at Google Privacy Sandbox. Tell Gizmodo In an interview in April 2023. “The Privacy Sandbox team’s mission is to keep people’s activities private on a free and open Internet and support the broader company mission of ensuring information remains accessible and useful to everyone. “

January 4, 2023, tagged The first stage of the Google cookie eradication wave. If you’re one of the 30 million people who experience the joys of the cookie-free Internet, here’s what you’ll see.

How to tell if Google has turned off your cookies

The first thing you will see is Pop-ups in Chrome, describes Google’s new “tracking protection,” which the company calls its cookie murder scheme. If you’re like many of us, you react to pop-ups with extreme vigilance, often ignoring the content of any message your computer wants you to see, so you might miss it.

You can also watch for other signs to see if a bunch of cookies have landed on you. When Tracking Protection is turned on, you’ll see a little eyeball symbol in the address bar.

You can click that eyeball if you want to allow specific sites to use cookies on you, which you probably will, since this change in Chrome will almost certainly break some sites. The good news is that Chrome has a series of new features that will disable tracking protection if a problem is detected on a website.

Finally, you can check your browser’s preferences. If you open Chrome’s settings, you’ll find a bunch of nice toggles and controls for cookies under the Privacy & Security section. If they’re all turned on and you don’t remember changing them, you might be one of the lucky 30 million people included in Google’s initial beta phase.

Google is still tracking you, but more privately

Of course, Google doesn’t intend to ruin its career.it Don’t want to hurt every company The company also makes money from advertising as it battles numerous lawsuits from regulators who accuse the company of running a massive monopoly online. So Google is replacing cookies with a new way to track users who collect data about you, which it says is better for your privacy.

Google calls the plan “privacy sandbox”. It involves several extremely complex tools and techniques. Generally speaking, Chrome itself tracks what you do on the web, but it stores that data on your device rather than sending it to Google or anyone else. Chrome then sorts you into groups based on your personality. Websites and advertising companies can ask Chrome which group you belong to (such as people who like high-performance car parts or hair removal products). However, the company cannot learn about your individual browsing behavior without violating Google’s rules.

That’s better than the status quo, which involves billions of extremely sensitive pieces of information about your flight on the Internet. It’s not exactly privacy either, because you’re being tracked. Other browsers, such as Firefox, DuckDuckGo, and Apple’s Safari, blocked third-party cookies not long ago, and they have yet to replace them with new tracking tools (whether more private or otherwise).

Google argued that it could not cut off the flow of data to all its competitors without risking a full-scale crackdown by antitrust police in the United States, the European Union and elsewhere. Still, privacy advocates aren’t entirely thrilled with Chrome’s new data regime.

“Google and its subsidiaries have tightened their grip on Internet innovation while employing now-familiar marketing tactics to promote these things as beneficial to users,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a recent report. Blog article. Google’s Privacy Sandbox “limits tracking so it can only be done by one powerful party (i.e. Chrome itself), and Chrome can then distribute what it learns to advertisers willing to pay. This is simply the browser’s request from the user agent Another step in transitioning into an advertising agency.”

EFF recommends that Chrome users install its privacy badger A browser extension that automatically disables Chrome’s new tracking settings and prevents various other data collection when you use the web.

Many advertising companies have started using Google’s new tracking tool, but some see it as an anti-competitive threat to their business. In other words, the new changes to Privacy Sandbox and Chrome are too private for some tech industry players, but not private enough for some privacy advocates.

Last year, I asked Google’s Victor Wong how he felt about working on a project that made everyone angry about the problem. His answer was as you’d expect.

“I think that tells us we’re doing the right thing,” Huang said. “We’ve just chosen to follow a path that we think is balanced for everyone because, like I said, we’re part of a broader ecosystem. We’re trying to improve the lives of consumers as well as entrepreneurs, publishers, creators everywhere. livelihoods of investors and developers. You’re never going to get all these different groups to fully agree on a strategy.”

Will cookies disappear forever? Well, no.

Have you ever wondered what cookies actually are? Basically, it’s a text file, a string of letters and numbers that is unique to you, or at least to your most recent browsing session. The website stores these cookies in your browser and when you visit the website they check to see if the cookie recognizes you. It is used to check a database of information about you.

“First-party cookies” are cookies executed by the website you are viewing. These may be harmless or even useful. First-party cookies can be used to track the fact that you are logged in or to remember items you have added to your shopping cart. These cookies don’t disappear, and Google and many users love them.

However, these third-party cookies are often used to spy on you. (Remember, we discussed third-party cookies at the beginning of this article. How did you get here without reading this article?) Third-party cookies help online advertising companies track every website you visit and what you are visiting What the website does. over there. These are the things Google is killing. rest in peace.