Topics API
Also known as: privacy sandbox topics
Chrome's replacement for third-party cookies that lets sites read a short list of your recent interest categories.
The Topics API is part of Google's Privacy Sandbox. Instead of sharing a stable identifier, your browser derives a handful of coarse-grained interest topics (like 'Fitness' or 'Travel') from your recent browsing and exposes them to sites that ask.
Advocates argue it's a big improvement over cross-site cookies; critics point out it's still browser-mediated behavioural targeting and can be combined with fingerprinting. Users can disable it in Chrome settings; other browsers (Firefox, Safari, Brave) don't implement it.
Related terms
A cookie set by a domain other than the one in the address bar, used to track users across sites.
Google's umbrella project of replacement APIs meant to enable advertising without third-party cookies.
Code, pixel or request that collects information about a user across websites.