Third-party cookies are something Google was already planning to phase out a few years back and we’re looking for a better and secure alternative. In the last few years, platforms such has Privacy Sandbox, are believed to be the drivers of a healthy, ad-supported web that would render third-party cookies obsolete. Although third-party cookies are still far away from phasing out, Google has provided the users with some suggestable alternatives that can be used in the future. They call it the Trust Tokens.
Third-party cookies are basically created on the user’s device, not by the website that has been visited by the user but by the third party such as advertisements. Although it is just used to make the engagement of the user with advertisements better and provide them relevant ads as per their choice or previous interactions, it also poses a security and privacy issue for the users, which has recently been highlighted by US lawmakers for many tech giants.
Unlike cookies, trust token will authenticate the users without knowing their identity, which is a good way of identifying and differentiating a user from a bot and not track every individual. These tokens are very secure and do not allow to track a user, which reduces or prevents the conditions where a user’s privacy suffers. Google is also offering an explainer document for trust token if someone wants to learn about it in detail. It is also made available for testing to developers through API. Google has also hinted at integrating the feature with Chrome if the testing goes well.