Years in the making (and twice delayed), Google announced that it is finally disabling third-party cookies for its Chrome browser starting January 4, 2024. The process will start with only 1% of Chrome browser users, but be fully rolled out to all users by the end of the calendar year. While other popular browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari have already disabled tracking cookies in recent years, the move by Google fully puts the nail in the coffin of cookie use. Firefox has a fraction of the global browser market share across all device types with 3.36%, Safari with 18.5%, and Chrome with just under 65% (source).
Source: StatCounter Global Stats – Browser Market Share
The change by Chrome and other browsers will not affect first-party cookies – which are native to the website itself and used for functions such as storing login credentials. The move instead focuses on third-party cookies, which are used for cross-website tracking, interests, advertisements, and so forth.
The move comes with great scrutiny from the $600 billion-a-year advertising business but to the praise of privacy advocates everywhere.
Cookies have been a persistent part of the internet browsing experience for three decades. Disabling third-party cookies for the purposes of ad tracking and targeting is fundamentally disrupting the entire e-commerce and creative media agency enterprise business.
What used to be a vital component to understanding user internet activity, interests, and purchase potential will now need to be completely re-engineered to effectively reach these same consumers, from an ad agency or advertiser perspective.
Google has been providing tools and training to help advertisers and ad agencies make the transition, but many simply have been left unprepared. Some even thought Google may delay the change yet again. Not so.
Google Tracking Protection
Part of the new Chrome browser experience in a world without third-party cookies is what the company calls “Tracking Protection.” Tracking Protection is designed to isolate the user from current tracking mechanisms and make covert fingerprinting – a controversial and potentially weaponized byproduct of ad targeting – obsolete. Indeed, we just reported on Cox Media Group using embedded microphones on smart devices – such as televisions, smartphones, and smart hubs – for listening to consumer conversations for ad targeting. This data can then be shared with data brokers who resell the data for use by ad targeting agencies.
Eliminating third-party cookies and increasing privacy measures that are tightly integrated with browsers is key to avoiding the above dystopian realities of advertising.
The change is forcing everyone to pivot to new approaches for website and internet monetization. For Chrome browser users specifically, a “Topics” functionality is integrated within the privacy sandbox which assigns topics of interest to a user based on past browsing history.
The Topics API can then be utilized by advertising agencies for targeting potential audiences or customers instead of relying on third-party cookies. However, it requires a fundamentally new approach to ad creation, audience targeting, and investment strategies versus before.
If you’d like a deeper dive into the Topics API and how the functionality is used under the hood, check out Google’s GitHub Topics API documentation or official Topics API documentation on Google.com.
Disclaimer: The author of this article is a current employee of Google. This article does not represent the views or opinions of his employer and is not meant to be an official statement for Google, or Google Cloud.
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