Googling will put a brake on third-party cookies in Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, from next year. As you probably know, these data files, which are placed in our browsers by websites other than the one we visit, track our Internet activities in often intimate detail. The files are sold to advertisers who, when we visit a new site, can target us with ads based on the data.
Google’s decision is part of a much broader trend. Firefox and Safari dropped support for third-party cookies in 2019 and 2020 respectively, and Chrome already lets you opt out in the settings. And because the information in cookies can be used to identify you, the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) require you to give consent through those annoying pop-ups.
Third-party cookies, once the lifeblood of digital ad targeting, appear likely to disappear soon. It won’t all be good news. While Google, and for that matter Facebook and Amazonpull up the drawbridge to accommodate privacy concerns by blocking third party cookies, they still have all the first party information collected about you on their own sites and can still sell it to advertisers if you give them permission, albeit in a less targeted form. Advertisers won’t find the data collected all that useful, while the fact that they’re still collecting the information means those annoying pop-ups will likely continue.
(Image credit: Google)
However, the most important way this will benefit businesses and consumers is that the advertising industry will adapt and become more effective. Instead of relying on targeted advertising, companies will connect more directly and in new ways with customers visiting their websites, aided by advances in AI and machine learning.
I spoke with John Regan, CEO of Electric Guitar, one of the companies helping companies navigate this new marketing landscape. He uses the metaphor of a tailor to explain the benefits of a first-party experience.
“If a tailor measures you, there are three advantages. It is transparent: you know what data you are giving away. You get value for your money: your clothes fit better. And it’s a one-off: the tailor can keep your measurements, but only so you can buy another suit.
Apple’s privacy features can stop tracking
(Image credit: Apple)
“The third-party version is where someone breaks into your home to measure your clothes and then shows up with a suit they made based on your stolen measurements and asks, ‘Do you want to buy it?’ That’s what happened before privacy concerns arose.”
Instead of annoying advertisements that follow you around the Internet, you will soon receive information and functions that are targeted to you personally. Companies will be able to predict what you want and deliver it more easily through techniques like preventive replenishment and automated delivery.
AI chat identifies just the car you need to blow away the cobwebs of a midlife crisis, suggests decorative themes for your home, or finds just the right camera and software to revolutionize your photography. It will be a trade-off with privacy, but one with such clear benefits that you will want to take advantage of it. For many consumers, the replacement of third-party cookies could prove more irresistible.