Enter Sandbox: Google is building an internet without cookies
Google wants your Google Account to be the only Identity Signal available on the web.<p>This feature is available right now in Analytics and Ads. It&#x27;s called &quot;Google Signals.&quot; The documentation is publicly available, although it&#x27;s a little scattered between different product page. I&#x27;ll summarize:<p>If the user is using Chrome, and is logged into their Google Account, then you can use <i>that</i> instead of <i>cookies</i>. This is used for pulling in demographic information, cross-domain tracking, and cross-device tracking (something even 3rd-party cookies can&#x27;t do without fingerprinting!).<p>The Privacy Sandbox kills <i>other</i> channels that might be an identity signal. Meaning ones available to parties other than Google.<p>Even as an anti-Google zealot who disapproves of this, I&#x27;ll admit there are some ancillary benefits. For one, I honestly do believe that Google intends to kill fingerprinting, because it&#x27;s in their interest to do so. For another, Google does offer a setting &quot;disable personalized advertising&quot; which will centrally let you opt-out of this tracking.<p>But most people are surprised when they find out that things already work this way, which to me already puts it on ethically dubious foundations from a privacy perspective. And, of course, the monopoly issue.