Third-Party Cookies Access Deprecation in Google Chrome and Firefox Browsers

Google is planning to end third-party cookies for Chrome users in 2024. In Q1 2024, Chrome is beginning to phase out third-party cookies access to approximately 1% of its users, with up to 100% phase out planned for Q3 2024 and beyond. Firefox browser has already been restricting third-party cookies access in its default settings.

What are third-party cookies and how are they used?

They are cookies in a user’s browser which are from a domain other than the one the user is currently on. They are primarily used for tracking and targeting users with advertisements, but they are also used for seamless transitioning of users between sites.

Impacts on Cornerstone applications

Unless steps are taken on the customer side, this deprecation can be disruptive to existing features that were previously acceptable such as content progress tracking with third party vendors, custom pages and features like CSX Welcome and Login pages, and facilitating integrations between sites (e.g. LXP integration between CSX and Edcast).

Customer action is required

Due to these new third-party cookie enhancements in Chrome and Firefox, customer action is required to prevent disruption of functionality in Cornerstone’s platforms. Customers should partner with their IT teams to review the deprecation’s potential impact and implement a corrective course of action.

Cornerstone is recommending the following approach

Customers should configure the browser privacy preference for Google Chrome and Firefox to allow their Cornerstone hostname(s) and necessary third-party domains/sites in users’ browsers to access third-party cookies. This allows customers to control the domains/sites they want to allow and provides users with a seamless experience. This requires customer effort to configure their users’ machines.

Chrome - when this feature is enabled in Chrome at your organization, follow these instructions.

  1. On Chrome press the three dots in the top right
  2. Then go to Settings
  3. In the Search
  4. Go to Privacy and Security
  5. Then Tracking Protection
  6. Scroll down page and click Add next to Sites allowed to use Third-party cookies
  7. In the pop up enter one or more of the following:
    1. [*.]csod.com
    2. [*.]edcast.com
    3. [*.]sabacloud.com

Firefox - you can specify which websites have Enhanced Tracking Protection turned off. Type the exact address of the site you want to manage and then click Add Exception.

  1. On Firefox press the hamburger menu in the top right to open the application menu
  2. Then go to Settings
  3. On the left sidebar menu, click Privacy & Security
  4. Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, click Manage Exceptions… to open the Exceptions for Enhanced Tracking Protection pop-up window
  5. In the pop-up window enter your fully qualified Cornerstone domain name in the Address of website field (e.g., https://companya.csod.com)
    1. https://<portalname>.csod.com
    2. https://<portalname>.edcast.com
    3. https://<portalname>.sabacloud.com
  6. Click Add Exception
  7. Click Save Changes

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