Jan 26, 2021 4:45 AM PT Google sent a shock wave through the advertising and publishing industries last year when it announced it planned to scrap third-party tracking cookies, which are an important tool for online marketers. Not to worry, the company announced Monday. It has a viable alternative in the wings. "It might be hard to imagine how advertising on the Web could be relevant, and accurately measured, without third-party cookies," Google's Group Product Manager for User Trust and Privacy Chetna Bindra wrote in the company's Ads & Commerce blog. "When the Privacy Sandbox technology for interest-based advertising (FLoC) was first proposed last year, we started with the idea that groups of people with common interests could replace individual identifiers," she continued. "Today, we're releasing new data showing how this innovation can deliver results nearly as effective as cookie-based approaches."