Third-party cookies in Chrome are gradually being phased out by Google. To maintain ad revenue and avoid opposition from UK regulators, the search giant begins restricting cross-site monitoring in response to customer privacy concerns. As part of its Privacy Sandbox program, which aims to remove all third-party cookies by the second half of 2024, the search engine on Thursday made Tracking Protection available to 1% of browser users. By preventing third-party cookies from accessing a website, tracking protection reduces cross-site tracking. Google first made public its intention to phase out third-party cookies in 2021, not long after the European Union started looking into Google’s advertising practices.

Competitors have also taken action to prohibit third-party cookies: in 2020, Apple for Safari, and in 2019, Mozilla for Firefox. In December, Google initially made Tracking Protection available.

Google intends to address privacy concerns raised by consumers and regulators by gradually eliminating third-party cookies and introducing Tracking Protection. This move will help Google maintain its ad revenue stream and stave off legal action from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

Digital commerce and generative AI.

However, critics claim that because Google’s plan to phase away third-party cookies in Chrome ignores advancements in marketing technology, including generative AI, it is insufficient.”Google’s efforts are not looking far enough ahead,” according to analyst Gerry Murray of IDC.

According to him, Google is taking steps to maintain ad revenue while adhering to regulatory standards, but it is not addressing the effects that generative AI agents will have on consumers, the demise of cross-domain tracking, or the duplication of consumer information.”Generative AI agents will enable consumers to participate in digital marketplaces based on programmatic intent,” said Murray.

The biggest challenge for Google, he claimed, will be figuring out how to maintain or replace digital ad revenue.”Therefore, GenAI agents are a hugely disruptive threat that may make another major player the dominant force in the next digital economy,” Murray said.

The equilibrium in the stock market, where both buyers and sellers “are equally capable of controlling the terms of their market participation,” was compared to this situation. Murray claims that future earnings will be determined by commissions rather than impressions.”The digital economy has enormous implications for everyone,” the lawmaker said.

CDP: Customer data platforms

According to David Raab, founder of the CDP Institute, marketers who wish to better utilize first-party data they control and collect have been encouraged to build customer data platforms by Google’s anticipated deprecation of third-party cookies. He calculated that 50% of companies that purchase digital advertising are not ready for the post-cookie era. According to Raab, his organization has conducted research and has observed several innovative uses of CDPs to support outbound advertising.

Although Facebook and Google’s ad networks do not divulge the identities of the audience members to whom advertisements are shown, CDPs allow users far more precise control by ranking specific audience attributes and restricting ad expenditure to particular market segments.

Google has been planning to do away with third-party cookies for years, but it seems that regulator pressure has caused them to change their minds. Testing with Google Chrome this week indicates that the vendor is finally prepared to carry out its strategy later this year, as Raab had anticipated.”It’s very much in [Google’s] business interest to kill the cookie, so they’re highly motivated to make it happen,” added Raab.

SOURCE: https://www.techtarget.com/searchcustomerexperience/news/366565332/Google-begins-phasing-out-third-party-cookies-in-Chrome