Back in 2020, Google announced that it would soon phase out the use of third-party cookies and user-agent strings in its Chrome web browser, in a bid for better user privacy. It then began trialing various methodologies to offer alternatives to cookies under its Privacy Sandbox initiative, with mechanisms like trust tokens, the Topics API, and more. Now, it has revealed the next phase of its plans to get rid of third-party cookies in Chrome completely.

In a blog post, Google has explained that it will enable a capability called Tracking Protection for 1% of all Chrome users globally on January 4, 2024. This feature will disable access to third-party cookies for websites by default, which will restrict cross-site tracking. Websites typically use this method to serve personalized ads and recommendations to users. However, Google believes that its alternate implementations will better cater to these use-cases in a privacy-preserving manner.

The 1% of Chrome customers who get enrolled into the Tracking Protection trial will be selected at random, and they'll be notified of their inclusion in the program when they open the browser on any device. That said, if certain sites fail to function without third-party cookies or Chrome determines patterns in your usage - such as multiple refreshes - to infer that a website is not working as you expect, you'll be able to manually re-enable cookies for that particular website by pressing the eye icon on the right side of Chrome's address bar.

Google says that its aim with the Privacy Sandbox initiative and the associated Tracking Protection feature is to build a version of the web that preserves the privacy of its users while still serving the key use-cases desired by website owners. Following this trial in early January, the company plans to roll out Tracking Protection for all by the second half of 2024, provided that regulatory approval from the UK is secured as well.