The D3 Guide to a Cookie-Free Google

The Digital advertising world went to meltdown this week as Google announced that over the course of the next two years they would slowly make third party cookies obsolete. Google says it wants to arm its users with privacy control, but at the same time, doesn’t want to stop publishers from generating ad revenue and brands from targeting consumers with so-called relevant ads. It's also a complicated process as Google is working with the likes of Apple, Mozilla and Microsoft, along with the internet's governing bodies to ensure that there will be consistency and standards to adhere to, as Google doesn't want advertisers and publishers to create invasive workaround to replace cookies such as fingerprinting which can actually reduce user privacy and control.

Google is going to introduce a Privacy Sandbox which builds measurement natively into the Chrome browser in order to provide user anonymity. This moves away from individually identifying information of third-party cookies and uses an API in Chrome to centralize data and ensure it’s only accessible to marketers when Chrome determines user activity will be anonymous.Google unsurprisingly believes that this will improve privacy, whilst most other commentators highlight the fact that this move will significantly strengthen the already thick walls of Google's walled Garden. It is really too soon to fully understand the impact of this decision for publishers and advertisers here in NZ, but there is no doubt that all advertisers need to really think about what their reliance is on third party cookies for audience targeting and beyond, as over the next couple of years that is going to have to change... Read More