Third-Party Cookies Phase-Out: Future of Cookie Consent

On 16 June, EACA joined the webinar “From Tracking to Trust: Replacing Third-Party Cookies” organised by OneTrust. The webinar addressed Google’s third-party cookie phase-out and the question of whether a website will still need a cookie consent banner after the phase outcomes into effect in  2022.

In January 2020, Google announced that it would end the use of third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022. Several other browser companies had previously said to do so.

Consent – now and in the future

However,  the deprecation of third-party cookies does not automatically mean the end of tracking and/or the end of user consent. Websites will still need to obtain users’ explicit consent before storing any data on a user’s browser, regardless of the technology used. Also, websites will still be required to inform end-users of any technology used to collect personal data, including its provider, purpose, and duration, and securely document the consents obtained, requiring them to be renewed annually.

Google Consent Mode launched in September 2020 is one example. whereby websites are allowed to run all Google services based on end-user consent.