Cookies enable various experiences we’ve come to expect as users of the internet: remaining logged in to our email accounts; keeping our preferred settings on the sites we visit most; our favorite brands remembering our shipping address for purchases.

Cookies have also been the primary mechanism that allows marketers to find users based on their online traits and behaviors and deliver advertising to them on the web which, in turn, provides more relevant advertising to individuals. That’s all changing—and rapidly—with many industry trades declaring, finally, the “death of the cookie” despite its long reign at the top of the digital marketing tracking hierarchy for 20+ years.

In today’s world, privacy—including being tracked by third-party cookies—has come to the surface as a top priority among internet users. We have written about it following the implementation of GDPR in the EU, and more recently after Apple’s ITP2.2 announcement. Privacy is actually Apple’s key differentiator in a market where its competitors include similar-but-not-the-same companies like Google. It was natural that they would lead the charge on cutting out cookies, as they had far less financial interest in cookie-based advertising than “the other guys”. In fact, they’ve stated that “privacy is a fundamental human right“.

Following the demand from consumers (and Apple’s lead), Google is also getting into the cookie-less conversation with its February 4 Chrome 80 release. With this release, Chrome will no longer send third-party cookies across sites unless developers have specifically coded which cookies can work/are allowed across websites. Click here to read the full article.