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In essence, your viewing history is similar, but not identical to, plenty of others. It all works in a similar way to how Netflix’s algorithm works out what you might like to watch. If Google’s AI works out you really like sneakers, for example, then you’ll be chucked in a group with other similarly-minded sneaker fans. Advertisers will then be able to put ads in front of people based on the group they’re in. Google hasn’t defined what these groups will be yet but they will include thousands of people that have similar interests. The machine learning system takes your web history, among other things, and puts you into a certain group based on your interests. So what are the alternatives? Google’s plan is to target ads against people’s general interests using an AI system called Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC).

“The intention really was to initiate a certain set of proposals about how older technologies like third-party cookies, as well as others, can be replaced by privacy-preserving API alternatives,” says Chetna Bindra, a product lead on Google’s ads business. All the data gathered by third-party cookies is used to build user profiles, which can include your interests, the things you buy and behaviours online – this can be fed back to murky data brokers. Third-party cookies are the main reason why the shoes you looked at two weeks ago are still stalking you around the web. First-party cookies, by comparison, beam data back to the owners of the domain you’re visiting at the time. Third-party cookies send all the data they collect back to a different domain than the one you’re currently on. These cookies – small snippets of code – are able to track your browsing history and display ads based on this. If you’re using Chrome at the moment then the websites you visit, with a few exceptions, will add a third-party cookie to your device. Mozilla’s Firefox blocked third-party cookies in 2019 – the problem is so vast that the browser is currently blocking ten billion trackers per day. Apple’s Safari, the second biggest browser behind Chrome, limited cookie tracking in 2017. “They were the most privacy-invasive technology in the world for a while.” When Google does remove them in 2022, it won’t be first – but its huge market share does mean it will have the biggest impact. “Third-party cookies were awful,” Cyphers says. The removal of third-party cookies from Chrome, first announced in January 2020, has been a long time coming. But, ultimately, when it comes to Chrome, everything is controlled by Google. Privacy Sandbox is documented online and Google has altered its plans based on feedback and counter-proposals from rivals.

Google is already testing some while others remain firmly at the development stage. The Privacy Sandbox proposals are complicated and technical.