On Tuesday, Google Privacy Sandbox extended its arbitrary schedule for deprecating the third-party cookie yet again, rescuing the industry from the imminent Q4 deadline.  But was it really that juicy of an announcement?

There’s been collective scrutiny from the industry and plenty of concerns aired relative to the solutions offered in the Privacy Sandbox. The IAB Tech Lab conducted an in-depth investigation of the Sandbox’s limitations, and Mediavine also shared their findings on latency introduced in Sandbox auctions. Plus, the draft report from the ICO notes that Google’s approach for replacing cookies has vulnerabilities that might be exploited by marketers.

Clearly, the Privacy Sandbox wasn’t ready for prime time. The delay is an acknowledgment by Google that efforts to prepare its cookie substitute would take longer than its stated deadline allows, which shouldn’t be a great surprise to those actively engaged in testing.

But Google’s recognition of “ongoing challenges related to reconciling divergent feedback from the industry, regulators and developers” hardly touches the surface of the problem.

Many engaged in testing have argued that Google’s judgments and product road map across both the Chrome Privacy Sandbox and the Google Ad Management teams seem to be disparate. Both teams provide divergent ideas on a road forward. And they vary on the efficacy of their own recommended remedies for addressing suspicions that Google is harming competition.

Beyond anti-competitive concerns, Google’s over-engineered approach to the Privacy Sandbox APIs makes the route forward more difficult.

An alternate solution to third-party cookies will only be reached via industry collaboration. While lines of communication have strengthened over time with the Privacy Sandbox team, it will be their product and engineering teams that need to correct the industry’s and regulators’ current glaring concerns.

It’s vital to remember that many web browsers have successfully deprecated third-party cookies without offering up alternatives.

Therefore, ongoing collaboration and transparency from Google are realistically the only road forward for establishing a solution that preserves some degree of addressability — without just rejecting an audience signal that marketers have come to rely on.

Some might suggest Google delaying its cookie phaseout instead of being told it must put its plans on hold is a better reality check for everyone concerned.

But, ultimately, the timing of the deadline – whether it’s Q4 2024 or some indeterminate point in 2025 – doesn’t matter. The result will be the same: Third-party cookies will be deprecated to suit privacy and regulatory concerns. And any delay indicated by the Chrome team does not effect the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigation timeframe.

The CMA has given advertisers, publishers and the entire ad tech ecosystem until the end of June to continue testing and documenting their complaints, findings and possible remedies. So the sector still has the same opportunity for assisting the CMA decide if the Privacy Sandbox could damage competition in digital advertising and hamper publishers’ ability to make money.

Mediavine’s Privacy Sandbox issues have been met with interaction from Google and have created shared efforts to solve concerns and an ongoing commitment to provide the best possible solution for the industry. Those are positive indicators.

But we’ve still got work to do. The industry is in exactly the same spot it was on Monday before to Google’s statement. We are approaching a future without the third-party cookie. We have an obligation to voice our ideas to the CMA by the end of June. Whether the cookie eventually goes from Chrome in Q1 2025 or Q3 2025, the industry still needs to adapt and innovate.

After all, the stagnation of innovation is a worse danger to digital advertising than cookie deprecation. And the entire industry has already been devoured by third-party cookie deprecation for much longer than needed.

Neither Google’s announcement this week nor the CMA’s findings being disclosed later this year will alter the fundamental reality: Time is of the importance to develop, implement and solidify solutions that no longer rely on third-party cookies.