Unfortunately, Jim Carrey is not here to shed any positive or funny wit on the topic. But Google has announced that it plans to end its support for third-party cookie based tracking. Other browsers such as Safari and Firefox have already made this move. However, as we all know, Google Chrome dominates browser market share [1] and is likely to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. In essence, this is big news.
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share
Google has not mentioned a specific date but it has stated it will be within the next two years. Which is does allow advertising platforms and media houses alike some time to find potential alternative solutions.
But What Does This Mean For Me?
If you are a brand or company currently utilising third-party cookies for advertising or other software solutions, we hope that alternative solutions will be provided or utilised, enabling companies to carry on as usual (we suggest you do a reccie as to what you are infact using on your site). If this isn’t the case, then we expect large potential fluctuations between platforms that can offer the best of industry capabilities.
What are the alternative tracking solutions I hear you say? First-party cookies are one. A good example of this is Facebook. Who moved to first-party cookies in 2018 in anticipation of such movements. But what’s the difference? [2]
- First-party cookies are stored by the domain (website) you are visiting directly. They allow website owners to collect analytics data, remember language settings, and perform other useful functions that help provide a good user experience.
- Third-party cookies are created by domains other than the one you are visiting directly, hence the name third-party. They are used for cross-site tracking, retargeting and ad-serving.
There is also a growing movement towards unified ID tracking. This will predominantly be used within the publishing industry. Companies such as ID5 offer shared tracking solution.
What Are The Benefits?
The benefits for internet users are that browsing is becoming safer and data and privacy is now starting to be taken seriously. Essentially, with the movement to first-party cookies, the only companies that will be able to directly handle visitor’s data are the domain/website owner themselves, unless they have your permission to share that information with third-parties in their terms and conditions. It always helps to read the small print…
Where has this come from? With the introduction of GDPR and ePrivacy, companies need to be shown to take proactive steps in keeping their website users data and related information transparent. Essentially, their data handling and processing practices need to be up to date and visible.
The Bigger Picture
Stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. It is great to see that law and technology are starting to catch up with each other. We published an article recently on how Twitter has banned political ads for the upcoming elections and it is movements like this and moving away from third-party data that will help the Digital Marketing industry and people live more harmoniously in the future.
References:
[1] https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share
[2] https://clearcode.cc/blog/difference-between-first-party-third-party-cookies/
