Google sounded the death knell for the most invasive internet trackers on Tuesday as it said its Chrome browser would phase out the use of cross-website cookies, which have underpinned digital advertising for 25 years.
Following recent bans introduced by Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla, Google said it would also aim to make “obsolete” so-called third-party cookies that follow internet users from site to site, sometimes tracing their browsing for months at a time.
The changes to Chrome, which launched just over a decade ago but now dominates the desktop browser market, will restrict the flow of data to ad agencies and brokers — a trend digital marketers refer to as “the cookie apocalypse”.