The Privacy Sandbox team announced that, after five years of development, testing, and industry consultation, Chrome will maintain its current approach to third-party cookie choice. Contrary to previous expectations, there will be no new standalone prompt – meaning third-party cookies are here to stay for now.
This outcome is not entirely unexpected. Over the past five years, we’ve seen timelines pushed back repeatedly, goals redefined, and clarity often missing. The ambition of removing third-party cookies is massive, and while the complexity is clear, the execution has left much to be desired. Today’s decision effectively resets the timeline once again – bringing us back to conversations we were having as far back as 2019.
From a technical standpoint, introducing Privacy Sandbox APIs has required a fundamental rebuild of core infrastructure across the digital advertising ecosystem. This meant significant engineering investment and operational alignment for anyone involved in open web programmatic campaigns. However, much of this effort was made with a moving target in mind – one that has now shifted again.
At Adlook, we’ve been involved in Privacy Sandbox development since the beginning – but we’ve never treated it as a single point of dependency. From day one, we recognized that the open web is broader, richer, and more diverse than any one browser. That’s why we deliberately chose to diversify our workstreams, reduce reliance on dominant ecosystems, and ensure our solutions work across multiple environments – not just Chrome.
That is why today’s announcement does not impact our platform or the advertisers we support. Our solutions are already delivering outcomes in environments that operate both with and without third-party cookies – not in a test phase, but in real campaigns, with real results.
Like many in the industry, we’ve worked closely with clients to test and evaluate Privacy Sandbox APIs. That effort wasn’t wasted - it contributed valuable insights and helped teams prepare for a future beyond third-party cookies. But with timelines once again uncertain, it’s clear that many advertisers have been forced to plan against moving targets. The real cost lies in the constant reprioritization - time and focus that could have been used to address immediate challenges like data and inventory quality, as well as unlocking value across the broader open web.
One of the most pressing of these challenges is data quality. In our recent report, “The Accuracy Gap in Socio-Demographic Data,” we found that the most widely used demographic targeting segments are deeply flawed:
These findings reveal a systemic issue with how third-party data is used and sold, calling into question the effectiveness of audience targeting strategies based on inaccurate inputs.
While Privacy Sandbox implementation has been in flux, we’ve stayed focused on building outcome-driven, privacy-respecting solutions that address the real gaps – like measurement, attention, and data integrity – across the open web.
At Adlook, we believe in true partnership – built on aligned incentives, transparency, and long-term collaboration. That’s in sharp contrast to how the broader Privacy Sandbox process has unfolded: marked by fragmented execution, shifting messaging, and misalignment with the needs of advertisers and the open web at large.
Now is the time for the industry to refocus – not on speculative timelines or walled-garden dependencies, but on delivering meaningful value through innovation and smarter media investment.
The open web remains the most dynamic, diverse, and underutilized space in digital media. To those looking to improve outcomes through innovative, privacy-forward strategies – we’re here to talk.
