With yesterday's release of Firefox 69, Mozilla has started blocking third-party tracking cookies by default as part of their Enhanced Tracking Protection feature. Not to be outdone by Firefox, Google has also started to test a new feature that will block third-party tracking cookies within Google Chrome.

In the latest Chrome Canary build, Google has added a new experimental flag titled "Enable improved cookie controls UI" that when enabled will add a new "Block third-party cookies" option to the "Cookies and Site data" settings screen. This screen can be accessed using the Chrome URL chrome://settings/content/cookies.

New Block third-party cookies setting

Once enabled, Chrome will automatically block third-party tracking cookies at sites that you visit. If in Incognito mode, a button will also appear in the Omnibar that displays a new dialog as shown below.

Incognito Mode Alert

Regardless of the browsing mode you are in, you can see a list of cookies that are blocked by clicking on the shield next to the address and then clicking on Cookies in the doorhanger that appears.

Chrome Security door hanger

This will open a "Cookies in use" dialog that contains a Blocked tab that shows all of the cookies that have been blocked.

Blocked third-party cookies on Facebook

This is another warning for advertisers and tracking companies who should take note that the blocking of third-party scripts will become default soon by all major browsers.

Enabling third-party cookie blocking in Google Chrome

For those who want to test this feature and enable third-party cookie blocking in Chrome, you need to download and install the Google Chrome 78 Canary build.

Once installed, go to chrome://flags and search for improved-cookie-controls. When the "Enable improved cookie controls UI" flag is shown, set it to Enabled and relaunch the browser when prompted.

Once Chrome has restarted, you can enable the new feature under the browser's cookie settings.

H/T Techdows.com