What are cookies?
Does it sometimes feel like the products that you were thinking about yesterday seem to follow you around the internet through ads for the rest of your week? Or that flight and hotel package you scrolled through on a dreamy whim seems always to pop up whenever you’re trying to book your next work trip? It’s not magic or scary; it’s cookies.
But unlike those delicious treats, we enjoy with a glass of milk and can’t stop eating, internet cookies are small bits of data that websites store on your device to track your online activity. In theory, they’re trying to help make your web experience better—whether you’re shopping, researching, or planning your next vacation.
You should be aware of some changes, so let’s delve deeper into the world of internet cookies, what they are, and what upcoming changes mean for the future of websites and digital marketing.
What’s in the jar: first-party vs. third-party cookies.
First, imagine your mom made you your very own cookie jar for your personal cookie stash. It even has your name on it. That’s a first-party cookie.
These cookies are created and stored directly by the websites you visit. They’re used for remembering your login information, keeping track of products you’ve put into a shopping cart, or storing your preferences on a specific website. Another way of thinking about them is that they’re the sticky notes your website leaves on your device to remember all these things to enhance your user experience.
Imagine your mom brought home an assorted box of cookies from all your favourite bakeries and cafes. These are third-party cookies. They’re put onto your device by websites other than the one you’re currently visiting. They’re typically used for online advertising. It works because when browsing a specific site that reflects your interests, a third-party advertising company might place a cookie on your device to track that interest. That way, they can access that cookie later and serve you ads that fit your interests when browsing your preferred news site, cultural blog, or any site that allows advertising on their pages.
A crumbling system: why third-party cookies are tossed out like unsold day-olds.
Third-party cookies have been the backbone of online advertising for years. However, as users become more savvy and suspicious, privacy concerns have led to a significant shake-up in the digital space. Privacy advocates have raised concerns about all the data collected through third-party cookies and potential misuse.
Plus, the rise of ad blockers and stricter privacy regulations have made it harder for third-party cookies to be as effective.
Third-Party Privacy Timeline
- April 2016: The EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) statute, which limits many tracking activities in European countries.
- September 2017: Safari developed Intelligent Tracking Prevention, which opened the first channels on its platform to prevent third-party cookies.
- January 2018: The California Consumer Privacy Act is enacted. CCPA and cookie consent begin to gain traction.
- September 2019: Firefox starts blocking third-party cookies
- January 2020: Google joins Safari and Firefox in announcing they will start to phase out third-party cookies and offers Google Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) as a potential replacement.
- June 2020: Apple releases iOS 14 upgrades, which include App Tracking Transparency. This feature forces apps to obtain consent before collecting user data rather than doing it automatically.
- Spring 2021: iOS 14.5 (the update with user tracking changes) is released, limiting many advertisers.
- January 2022: Google kills FLoC and replaces it with Topics, where your browser learns about your interests as you move around the web, categorizing them into 300 topics. It’ll keep data for the last three weeks.
- October 2023: Google announced the Privacy Sandbox to prepare developers for the depreciation of third-party cookies.
Google Chrome and the Privacy Sandbox.
Google’s new Privacy Sandbox is its answer to phasing out third-party cookies entirely while prioritizing user privacy and still allowing effective online advertising.
“What the heck is that?” you ask. Google Chrome’s Privacy Sandbox is a series of proposals by Google that aim to find new ways to track online activity for targeted advertising without compromising user privacy. The idea is essentially to create a space where advertisers can build targeted campaigns to reach users as they browse without directly accessing personal data.
These new APIs want to give web browsers a new role: acting locally on the user’s behalf to secure identifying information on their device as they browse the web instead of working with restricted tools and protections.
“Our goal with the Privacy Sandbox is to reduce cross-site tracking while still enabling the functionality that keeps online content and services freely accessible by everyone.”
Google’s Cookie Countdown
What does this all mean for websites and digital marketing?
Eliminating third-party cookies undoubtedly presents challenges for website owners and digital marketers. But it also presents an opportunity for advertisers and digital marketers to innovate.
Here are some ways to go with the flow as things inevitably change:
- Focus on first-party data: Building solid relationships with your users and collecting first-party data has been a push that’s been coming in the last few years. It’s now more crucial than ever. You want to get your visiting users to opt-in to data collection or personalize website content based on past browsing behaviour. Usually, this involves incentives. Think discount coupon pop-ups on your favourite e-commerce site or gifts with sign-ups à la New Yorker.
- Contextual advertising is like seeing the forest instead of the trees. Essentially, it means placing ads based on a webpage’s content rather than the user’s browsing history. However, this can still be a highly relevant way to reach your target audiences.
- Focus on building trust: Transparency and user trust will also be critical in this next digital era. Brands and sites must communicate clearly how user data is collected and used by them to convince users to give up their data.
- The rise of other privacy-focused solutions: As people find new solutions to the loss of third-party cookies, new technologies and platforms that prioritize user privacy while allowing targeted advertising will probably emerge.
The future is (still) delicious.
While the days of third-party cookies tracking your every move online are numbered, new solutions are emerging. This shift presents challenges and opportunities for website owners and digital marketers. By focusing on user privacy, building trust, and finding innovative solutions, the future of online advertising can still be a success story, even without the traditional cookie crumbs to follow users across the web.
