Google (GOOGL  ) has announced that it will be delaying its "Privacy Sandbox" plan to replace third-party cookies for advertising until 2024.

"The most consistent feedback we've received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome," Google's "Vice President of Privacy Sandbox", Anthony Chavez, wrote in a blogpost for the company. "As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024."

Cookies are an essential part of the digital advertising system as we know it. Cookies are tiny bits of code that a site places on a person's browser when they visit. The cookie then stays in the user's browser as they visit other sites. This allows advertisers to track users and create user profiles for targeted ads.

However, in 2019, Google introduced its Privacy Sandbox project to find an alternative to cookies in an effort to improve user privacy.

"Technology that publishers and advertisers use to make advertising even more relevant to people is now being used far beyond its original design intent - to a point where some data practices don't match up to user expectations for privacy," Google wrote in its 2019 announcement. "Large scale blocking of cookies undermine people's privacy by encouraging opaque techniques."

Last March, Google said that it planned to end support of cookies on Chrome sometime early this year. However, less than two months later, the company delayed the project for the first time, pushing the start date until 2023 to give digital advertisers more time to prepare for the transition.

The blog announcing the second delay also spoke on the expansion of testing on the Privacy Sandbox APIs. The APIs can already be tested by developers, but widespread testing is set to begin in August, with the APIs becoming available across Chrome browsers by the third quarter of 2023.

"As the web community tests these APIs, we'll continue to listen and respond to feedback," Chavez wrote. "As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024."

Google is just part of a broader trend towards increased online advertising privacy for users. Apple (AAPL  ) just recently introduced new changes to its operating system that will block advertisers' access to iPhone user identifiers. Facebook (META  ) said that it expects that single charge to cost it $10 billion in advertising dollars this year, alone.