#Google Chrome third-party cookies

A viral wave of headlines over the weekend claimed Apple was urging iPhone users to delete Google Chrome “immediately.” The buzz stemmed from a resurfaced New York Post article and took off across social media. What’s being mistaken for a warning is a cleverly pointed piece of advertising by Apple—one that has resurfaced due to a timely shift in Google’s Chrome strategy. Last year, Apple launched a Safari campaign with the tagline: “Your browsing is being watched.” In the campaign’s featured video titled “Flock,” Apple used animated surveillance drones and winged security cameras to depict what it claimed was the data-tracking behavior of other browsers, namely Google Chrome. Just days after Apple’s ad aired last year, Google had proposed changes aimed at limiting third-party tracking cookies in Chrome—a gesture seemingly aligned with Apple’s privacy-forward messaging. But this past week, Google quietly walked back those changes, stating that it would not roll out a new standalone prompt for third-party cookie permissions after all. Google Search is still the default engine in Safari, and there’s no practical or official scenario in which Apple would issue a direct warning to delete Chrome from iPhones. With Google backpedaling on Chrome privacy updates, Apple may very well seize the opportunity to refresh its Safari campaign. Read more in our articles including "Apple’s Quiet Campaign Against Chrome Gets Loud Again, Thanks to Google" and "Google Chrome adds Gemini AI tools".