Google announces end of many of its Privaxy Sandbox technologies

When Google announced the end of third-party cookies support in Chrome in 2020 and its Privacy Sandbox plans, it probably did not expect as much opposition to the plans than it received. While the majority of users liked the idea of erasing third-party cookie support from the Internet, Google's euphemistically called Privacy Sandbox plan was anything but.

One core feature of one of the technologies was the switch from individual user tracking to group-based tracking. Still tracking, but according to Google better for the individual. Still, tracking would continue, albeit in a different form. Other components faced criticism as well, especially since everything looked to give Google more power and control on the Internet.

Today, Google announced the end of quite a few Privacy Sandbox technologies. " Attribution Reporting API (Chrome and Android), IP Protection, On-Device Personalization, Private Aggregation (including Shared Storage), Protected Audience (Chrome and Android), Protected App Signals, Related Website Sets (including requestStorageAccessFor and Related Website Partition), SelectURL, SDK Runtime and Topics (Chrome and Android)" are all retired and will be phased out, if they are already part of the browser.

Some technologies, including CHIPS and FedCM, which Google says "improve cookie privacy and security" remain, as they have been widely adopted already. Here is what they do:

• Cookies Having Independent Partitioned State (CHIPS): Limits third-party cookie access to a top-level site where it was set initially. In other words, other sites can't access the cookie data.
• Federated Credential Management API: Aims to improve authentication and sign ins on the Internet by using existing accounts from trusted services while keeping personal information safe.

Lastly, Private State Tokens continue to be maintained as well. This allows sites to convey trust from one context to another. Google says that this is helping sites "combat fraud and distinguish bots from real humans - without passive tracking".

Now You: what is your take on this? Good decision, or something that is not beneficial to the privacy of users? Feel free to chime in below.

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Google announces end of many of its Privaxy Sandbox technologies appeared first on gHacks Technology News.