Posted On :

Share This :

The death of third-party cookies part one: What’s happening?

The death of third-party cookies will have a significant effect on everyone who works with digital marketing.

Few marketers have missed Google’s upcoming removal of cookies. Since the introduction of GDPR in 2018 the market has become more aware of how cookies are used to track user data which has created a greater demand for privacy. Browsers such as Safari and Firefox have already taken measures against cookie-tracking. This move from Google is the final nail in the coffin for third-party cookies.

In this part one of our cookie-covering blog posts we will answer the questions; What are cookies? Why are they being removed, and when will this happen? before moving on to analysing the future market implications in part two.  

When will cookies be phased out?

There is no set date for browsers to begin removing third-party cookies, but Google has announced that third-party cookies will be removed from Chrome by 2022, and Safari and Firefox have already begun to block them by default. 

What are cookies and what do we use them for?

Third-party cookies have been essential to advertisers for a long time. A cookie is a small piece of code that is thrown into your browser to record your online activity. Cookies have been used since the beginning of the Internet, in the 1990s, in two forms: first-party cookies and third-party cookies. The code has turned into a cross-site tracking tool that is the backbone of most online advertising models.

What are the short-term effects of losing third-party-cookies?

The death of cookies means losing a category of data. While there will still be ways to gather and track some user data (we will go into more detail on this in part two), it is not yet as effective and personalised which means digital/targeted advertising won’t be as precise as it is today, and cross-site tracking of users won’t be possible. For example, it means that you will no longer see ads for those shoes you put in your online shopping cart a few days ago, because the data that allows companies to retarget users through different platforms and websites won’t be available. As ads become less personalised they will also become less relevant.

What will happen in the future? 

In the second part of this blog series (to be released after easter) we will take a more analytical approach to cookie-death, look at what companies have started doing as an alternative, and give some insights on how we believe the market will evolve. Cookies have been an important part of marketing for almost 30 years and what is happening now is a big change to the industry.