The ongoing saga of a Google secure browsing project took yet another turn, with the latest change coming just a few days after the company lost an antitrust lawsuit against the US government. Google this week dropped some features from its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which was initiated in 2019 and aims to reduce the invasiveness of third-party cookies in the Chrome browser. The company said it won’t provide a specific prompt that would allow Chrome users to opt in or out of cookies from third parties. That was a central feature of the project that made it easier for users to secure Chrome experiences. The initial objective of Privacy Sandbox in 2019 was to drop third-party ad cookies for better browser security. That idea was dropped last year amid regulatory concerns. Third-party cookies were reinstated, and Google also said it provides “a new experience in Chrome” for users to be able to adjust their third-party cookie choices. This week Google dropped that idea, saying it wouldn’t roll out the so-called “new experience” — a new standalone prompt for third-party cookies for users to opt in or opt out of cookies from third parties. “Users can continue to choose the best option for themselves in Chrome’s Privacy and Security Settings,” wrote Anthony Chavez, vice president for the Privacy Sandbox initiative, in the blog entry. Chavez wrote that the change came amid changes in the regulatory landscape and browsing experiences. Google last week lost a case against the US, which accused the company of violating antitrust law “by monopolizing open-web digital advertising markets.” Google said it would appeal the ruling. The US Department of Justice originally accused Google of “wielding its dominance across digital advertising markets to force more publishers and advertisers to use its products,” according to a press release in 2023. The Electronic Frontier Foundation last year, in a blog entry, criticized Privacy Sandbox, saying it didn’t eliminate online tracking. Instead, online tracking moved from third-party trackers to Google, which tracks the data from Chrome and shares browsing habits with websites and advertisers. “Despite sounding like a feature that protects your privacy, Privacy Sandbox ultimately protects Google’s advertising business,” EFF wrote. Chavez reaffirmed it won’t deprecate third-party cookies. The company will engage with developers, publishers and advertisers to improve the Privacy Sandbox roadmap. Either way, Google’s reversal of Privacy Sandbox plans still points to the company chasing a closed ecosystem that serves the company’s business interests, said Anand Kashyap, CEO and Founder of Fortanix. Advertisers and media companies will use AI in their own secure systems that can analyze data to deliver targeted advertising on the Internet, Kashyap said. Google is also adding a feature in the third quarter this year that will protect the IP address when in secure mode of Chrome browser. Typically users can be located by capturing and tracking the IP address. The feature will anonymize the IP address, and it will be part of the Incognito mode, which creates a temporary browsing window that deletes browsing data on exit, Google said in a blog post on its Privacy Sandbox website. “The feature will be initially available in certain regions, and we plan to expand the availability over time. IP Protection will launch to Chrome Stable no sooner than July 2025,” Google said on the GitHub page for IP Protection. Chrome’s IP address anonymization feature could be important for enterprise users, said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “It’s clearly Google trying to enhance the security of Incognito mode and more importantly enhance the privacy of a mode that people assume is inherently private,” Sag said. In terms of privacy, Google’s IP Protection feature could block user IP access for third parties but not for their own services or needs, said Alex Matrosov, CEO of security firm Binarly.io. Google is attempting to adopt a similar approach to Apple’s Private Relay feature, which also hides IP addresses and has posed significant challenges for internet advertisers, including Google itself. “In the modern Internet, the word privacy has really transformed into marketing terminology or something else. It’s a nice feature for the Chrome browser to have, but it raises questions about why it was not implemented before,” Matrosov said.