The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has initiated a consultation regarding potentially releasing Google from its Privacy Sandbox commitments established in 2022. This follows Google's earlier decision to abandon plans that would encourage Chrome users to block third-party cookies, which many view as a reduction in competitive harm. Critics fear this move is primarily to maintain Google's dominance in the ad market. The CMA is inviting public feedback until July 4, 2025, as it assesses the necessity of these commitments in light of Google's recent policy reversal.
The CMA believes the commitments are no longer necessary and is now consulting before it takes a decision on whether to release them later this year.
Officially, Google said the reversal is aimed towards reducing user confusion and friction by avoiding a binary prompt that might mislead users into thinking Chrome was sharing their data.
Many believe Privacy Sandbox is now (unofficially) dead, despite Google's attempts to counter such a narrative.
Sources at Google maintain that reports of layoffs at the Privacy Sandbox team are being conflated with wider cutbacks across the web giant.
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