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Text | Tiana

After being postponed twice in four years, this code that changed the development of the digital advertising ecosystem was still retained by Google.

In 2020, Google first proposed that it would end the use of cookies in early 2022 and simultaneously launch the Privacy Sandbox program;

In June 2021, Google delayed the rollout for the first time, saying the delay was to give the digital advertising industry more time to develop more privacy-conscious targeted advertising plans;

In 2022, Google once again said that advertisers needed more time to transition to Google's cookie alternatives;

However, until the beginning of this year, Google remained "very confident" about the progress of the Privacy Sandbox proposal to replace cookies.

But last Monday,On July 22, Google issued a press release announcing the suspension of its plan to "gradually phase out third-party cookies in the Chrome browser by 2025" and stated that the choice will be left to the users in the future.

This incident has caused a great earthquake in the advertising industry. Publishers and agencies: Will we still take the exam without preparation? Alliances and associations: Were we just pretending before?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) took a tough stance and published a blog post condemning Google's "flip-flopping" and saying that third-party cookies must be canceled. They believe that third-party cookies are not conducive to the development of the Internet, mainly because "cross-site tracking of user activities, targeted advertising based on tracking data, monitoring user behavior, and collecting user sensitive information..." These behaviors violate user privacy and security.

W3C also stated that the idea of ​​canceling third-party cookies has been supported by many organizations in the industry and international privacy organizations. Regulatory agencies such as the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) have also called for blocking third-party cookies.

The UK Information Commissioner's Office issued a statement saying that it was disappointed that Google changed its plan and no longer intended to eliminate third-party cookies from the Chrome browser. After all, since the beginning of Google's sandbox project in 2019, the department has been very supportive of blocking third-party cookies.

Persisting Cookies

It doesn't mean to remove the shackles

If the plan is stopped, will everything really go back to four years ago? Actually, not really.

On the one hand, although Google changed its mind, they did not give up the privacy sandbox plan. The existence of the privacy sandbox technology still prevents advertisers from obtaining first-hand information about users.

Anthony Chavez, Vice President of Privacy Sandbox at Google, said:

Google developed the Privacy Sandbox to find new solutions that can actually improve users' online privacy while maintaining the interests of advertisers and shaping a vibrant Internet business ecosystem. The Privacy Sandbox can connect businesses with customers and keep the web pages we all visit free.

However, throughout this process we received feedback from regulators such as the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), publishers, web developers and standards bodies, civil society and advertising industry players.This feedback will not only allow us to continuously enhance our privacy technology, but will also help make the advertising industry more vibrant.

We predict that the Privacy Sandbox API is a powerful tool to achieve the above prospects. We expect that as the industry adoption rate increases, the overall performance of the Privacy Sandbox API will gradually improve. And this must be the result of the joint efforts of everyone.

For those who have invested a lot of time and energy in third-party cookie replacements, Anthony Chavez said, don't worry, the previous efforts will not be in vain. "As this process progresses, we will continue to provide and invest in the Privacy Sandbox API to further improve privacy and practicality."

certainlyAnother reason why we can’t go back to four years ago is that although cookies can still be used, users have autonomy this time and can choose more freely whether to be subject to privacy monitoring records of cookies.

Last Friday, Alex Cone, Google's privacy sandbox product manager, appeared on a virtual panel hosted by U of Digital and gave some additional information on the matter.

Cone said in the webinar: "Our goal is to give users more choices and ensure they are informed about data tracking." He also added: "We are optimizing the page design and discussing with regulators as we move forward." The emphasis on "ensure informed" means that in the future users will most likely be able to easily opt out of cookie tracking monitoring.

Anthony Chavez's comments also confirmed this speculation:"We will not abandon third-party cookies, but introduce a new experience in Chrome that allows people to make an informed choice from the moment they click into the site, and they can adjust whether to add cookies at any time while browsing the web."

These two paragraphs combined probably mean that users will see a pop-up window asking whether to accept cookies on the initial page, and it will be prominently displayed to all users, rather than hidden in the settings page as it is now. It may seem like a small adjustment to the location, but it actually has a big impact on advertisers because it will greatly affect whether users choose to accept cookies.

But Cone also said,New Chrome browser privacy regardless of cookie deactivation API The company has been testing and using the sandbox API for several months, and the API has been in general use since last fall, earlier than when 1% of Chrome browser users disabled cookies earlier this year.

Many people believe that the Privacy Sandbox can be used as a substitute for cookies, but Google claims that it has never been a substitute for cookies. Therefore, the deactivation of Chrome browser cookies and the adoption of the Chrome browser Privacy Sandbox are not actually very relevant. Of course, regulators and most advertising practitioners may not agree with this statement.

The most pressing question for advertisers right now is whether the new model will be similar to Apple's ATT (App Tracking Transparency) framework. If the new model is similar to Apple's ATT framework, then it may become invalid just like the device ID under Apple's advertising exchange system. However, based on the information currently released, this question is not enough to answer.

Marketers still have to dance with privacy rules

also,It’s worth noting that although Google has stopped its plan to deprecate cookies, this doesn’t mean that brand marketers should stop exploring cookie-free targeting solutions.At least that's what Rachel Cascisa, vice president of platform adoption at Epsilon, a marketing technology company owned by Publicis Groupe, thinks.

Because, while Chrome may not be completely deprecating cookies, industry executives estimate that overall, its usage will drop significantly, by as much as 70% to 80%. That means marketers will still have to deal with a large number of users who don't use cookies.butToday, marketers are no longer as "on edge" as they were in 2022. According to recent research from Adobe and Epsilon, marketers are much less prepared for cookielessness in 2024, which is not a good sign.

“I think you could liken it to procrastinating on studying for an exam,” Cascisa said. “Instead of passively studying, the announcement gives marketers an opportunity to actively study. Marketers should still prepare for the exam in accordance with ‘cookieless’, such as focusing on first-party data strategy. Because it is a good marketing strategy regardless of whether cookies are deprecated or not.”

In her opinion, mastering first-party data is a very important issue.

For example, those retailers have a ton of data, including all purchase data and SKU-level data. They have all kinds of patterns, you name it, they have it. However, those CPG companies have all the products and SKUs, but they just don't have the data. Therefore, the same strategy will not meet the needs of both types of marketers.

For the former, you have a huge amount of data, and what you need to do is to make sure your data is in order. That is, to ensure that all the first-party data you collect can be aggregated into a unified consumer view (such as a customer data platform CDP). For the latter, you need to use a data clean room to implement audience analysis. The data clean room is enough to help you obtain the truly sensitive, critical and proprietary data from the former.

Andrew Casale, CEO of ad technology vendor Index Exchange, also believes that the suspension of the cookie cancellation plan will not return to the situation four years ago. He said: "For Index Exchange, this shift by Google (referring to Google's decision to let users decide whether to accept Cookie tracking) does not change the status quo." He and his team will continue to test the API in the sandbox environment and continue to support the development of alternatives outside the sandbox.

Regardless of the controversy, it is an indisputable fact that cookies will continue to remain, and the privacy sandbox still has a lot to improve. Cone said: "This is something we have invested in for many months, so you can expect us to continue to work with the industry."