Google Plan to Remove All the Third-Party Cookies
Google announced on Tuesday that it is planning to remove the notorious tracking technology (third-party cookies) from its popular Chrome web browser before 2022, a strategy to make more secure and reliable web browsing. The plan to ditch the cookies is most likely to send trembles across all the online advertising platforms that rely on cookies for advertising via tracking and targeting audiences.
Third-party cookies provide valuable data to advertisers that can generate targeted ads, determine their efficacy, and measure user’s actions. But the method of tracking user’s private browsing has long been a matter of concern related to privacy.
Engineering director of Chrome, Justin Schuh said, “the aim is to motivate advertising platforms, publishers, and other web browser sites, in order to make new privacy-centered web standards for Google.” Schuh added that “Google will continue to belittle only third-party cookies till the development of advanced tools to diminish privacy-breaching by bad guys.”
Google intends to replace the tracking cookies with the latest technologies that may be used instead of cookies but in a less infuriating and trespassing way. The new technological solutions are expected to help advertisers target particular demographics without an invasive approach. Also, avoid break down of login infrastructure of websites, and allow anonymous tracking to some degree for advertisers to check whether their advertisements are converted into sales or not.
Incorporating all these technologies would dramatically change the behavior tracking for advertisements and privacy work on the websites. It could also provide unimaginable mediums of tracking.
The bigger idea behind Google’s cookie-ditching plan is that there’s an intense war between browser providers to modify the web’s privacy future. Browsing giants like Firefox and Safari already take an utter stance against third-party tracking cookies. Google aims to take a gradational approach and try to kill the cookies without hurting the websites’ revenue.
The competition between the browser makers isn’t on how to execute the anti-tracker technology; rather, the competition is on when to implement. On the one hand, Apple and Firefox believe that situation has already become unmanageable and have already initiated the removal of third-party cookies. On the other hand, Google wants to wait a little more.
The anti-tracking technology has become imperative for web browsers but an obstructer for the online ad ecosystem. Apple’s advanced tracking prevention system in Safari resulted in declined share prices of Ad-tech agencies. Similarly, publishers and advertisers have reported a hasty drop in advertising revenue due to the anti-tracking feature and an Enhanced Tracking Prevention function of Safari and Firefox, respectively.
According to Google, it hopes to work with various digital industry players to check the performance of its latest cookieless ad features in different frameworks. Google will soon start the trail on another cookieless conversion measuring feature to measure how many visitors take the desired action after viewing the ad.
Various suggestions have been offered on Google’s slow response to such sensitive matter compared with other rival browser makers. First of all, protecting the business is the top priority for Google, as it is the biggest online advertisement network across the globe, with links to almost every quarter of the digital advertising world, plus an enormous pool of media sellers and buyers. With being partnered with many online companies, sudden changes in policies will affect its partners.
In addition to these ideas, various other methods are also being discussed, which is a good sign because avoiding these anti-tracker technologies will negatively affect the user experience on the web. We hope that browsers will be able to replace third-party cookies with an effective and perfect system in the near future.
