Third-party cookies — those little pieces of information that track your online behavior and collect data about your interests — are one of the most privacy-invading technologies on the Web. Now, Google is set to turn them off beginning January 4th. The tech giant is randomly selecting 1% of Chrome users around the world — about 30 million people — to be the first to use a feature called “Tracking Protection.” It will limit website from using third-party cookies to track users in order to serve up relevant ads. If you’re one of the 1% randomly selected, you will see a notification on the Chrome browser. It will read: “You’re one of the first to experience Tracking Protection, which limits sites from using third-party cookies to track you as your browse.” Anyone who wants third-party cookies to continue on Chrome for whatever reason can re-enable them by clicking on the eye icon in the search bar. Google plans to completely phase out the use of third-party cookies when Tracking Protection arrives for all Chrome users in the second half of 2024.
