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Cookieless Internet

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January, 2023
 WHAT’S INSIDE?
Key Takeaways……………………………………………………...………………………….………………………………………………….…………..………..…..4

Listen: The Truth Behind Cookieless Tracking……….….…………………………………………...…………………………………………..5

What’s a Cookie?…………………………………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………..……..…….……...6

Third-Party Data vs First-Party Data………….…………………………………………………………………………………………..….……..……7

Growing Privacy Concerns ………….……………………………….………………………………………………………………………………..…………..9

What Does “Cookieless Future” Mean?…………………….…………….…………………………………………………….………………………10

Cookie Crumbles: The iOS 14.5 Update…………….…….………………….………………………………………………………………..……….12

Defining GA4: Why Do We Need to Prepare?………….……….………………………………………………………………………………… 13

Is This Really About Privacy, Though? ……………………………..…………………………………………………………………………………..15

Is GA4 GDPR Compliant? ……………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..17

The Business Will Not Be As Usual For Brands and Advertisers…………….……………………………………………..…..18

The Business Will Not Be As Usual For Consumers…………………………………….……………………….……………………….…20

The Cost of Digital Advertising Will Increase………………………………………………….…………………….…………….…………….21

Time to Face the Music…………………………………………………………………………..…………………………………………………….………..….22

Your Tasty Surprise!……………...……………….……………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………..23

References……………………………….………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………..24 2
The digital space is changing; brands and advertisers are entering a new era where they must learn how to function in a
cookieless world. Conversations around data privacy have been ongoing for decades, and we’re about to see some major
changes at a scale never seen before. What are these changes? What does “cookieless tracking” mean? And is all of this
really only about consumer privacy?
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 KEY TAKEAWAYS

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Cookies, the little data
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Cookieless tracking
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Cookieless advertising will
blocks with some refers to data be less relevant to
behavioural information tracking without the consumers, raising

2 4
about your web browsing
activities, started raising
questions about data
privacy and misuse of
information.
Starting July, 2023
Universal Analytics will no
longer be available, so
you need to switch to GA4
before then. Plus, starting
Q3 2024, Google will
completely eliminate
third-party cookies.8
help of third-party advertising costs. In
cookies; first-party parallel with this,
cookies are staying consumers may have to
with us. start paying for certain
services that were
previously free of charge.
Cookieless tracking will
make retargeting
campaigns difficult for
brands and advertising
agencies, and therefore,
advertising-based
revenues will drop.

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 ONLY Listen Instead: The
12 MIN! Truth Behind
Cookieless Tracking

How does “cookieless tracking” work? What does Google

have to gain from eliminating third-party cookies?

Can we truly have online privacy?

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What’s a Cookie?

Cookies, are small data blocks created by web browsers like

Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox. They are essentially data
trackers; the browser collects and stores the user’s behavioural

data, which allows brands and advertisers to use this

information for remarketing purposes.

Cookies contain information to identify and offer you an

enhanced online experience. This could be about

remembering your login information, knowing your most
frequently visited pages, storing your credit card information for
future purchases, etc.

Lou Montulli, Inventor of HTTP Cookies | Photo: By Peter Adams — Faces of Open Source

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First-Party Data
★ Technically, third-party and first-party cookies are almost the
same thing. They both contain the same type of information and
can perform the same function. However, they are different
when it comes to how they are used.

★ First-party cookies, for example, are created by a domain or a

website to enhance your online experience. This makes life easier
for you by storing certain information on your browser in case you
return to that website later.

★ This information could be your username, password, payment

information, email address, if you’ve added something to your
basket, etc. The purpose is to save you time and essentially
provide a better experience.

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Third-Party Data
★ Third-party cookies, on the other hand, are created by
advertisers with the purpose of tracking individuals across
the web for retargeting.

★ Those ads that seem to follow you around the web wherever
you go just because you looked at a pair boots once? It’s the
advertisers and their third-party cookies tracking your
behaviour.

★ Much like first-party cookies, third-party cookies also require

consent from the user. They can’t track you unless you allow
them to.

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Growing Privacy
Concerns
★ However, somewhere down the line, this started to feel a
★ Sure, personalisation and being offered personalised lot like cyber-stalking. We’ve started having heated
content is cool, but at some point, people stopped and conversations about data privacy and the much-needed
started asking, “Hold on a second. Why do you know so regulations.
much about me?”.
★ Consumers felt they should have the right to know if, where
★ Technological advances helped brands and companies and how their data is being used. Which led to regulations
build hyper-personalised retargeting campaigns. and laws like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
And for a while, all was good; people enjoyed seeing the
and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) being
things they were actually interested in.
enacted. These laws ensure that data tracking happens
with the consumers’ consent.

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What Does
‘’Cookieless Future’’ Mean?

A cookieless world is one where companies find a balance

between privacy and data tracking.

Essentially, we’re talking about a future where there’s going to be

a lot more transparency in how companies use consumer
data. And the central figure in this whole conversation is…you
guessed it, the good old Google.

In January 2020, Google announced that Chrome would not

support third-party cookies by the end of 2022. Then in March
2021, the company announced that it would stop using
behavioural targeting and would not allow third parties to replace
cookies with alternative identifiers.2

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“Cookieless describes a way of marketing in which marketers are less reliant on cookies — bits of data
that contain consumer personal identifiers.”

- Asa Whillock, [Former] Head of Product Operations & Strategy,

Adobe Digital Experience.1

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Cookie Crumbles:
The iOS 14.5 Update
A big move regarding the cookieless world and privacy came
from Apple: In April 2021, the tech giant announced that the iOS
14.5 update would implement App Tracking Transparency.3

The reason for this announcement was privacy concerns

around cross-app tracking, which allows ad targeting
based on the user’s behaviour on other mobile apps. In other
words, App Tracking Transparency was bad news for
advertisers who relied on this third-party data for retargeting.

So now, the apps have to allow the iPhone and iPad users to
opt-out from cross-app tracking, which gives more control
to the individuals over their own mobile app data and how
it’s being shared with third-party apps and companies for ad
targeting purposes.

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Defining GA4:
Why Do We Need to
Prepare?
GA4, also called Google Analytics 4, is Google’s last major analytics update.
The beta version was initially called an App + Webb property and has been
around since July 2019. And since its official launch in October 2020, GA4
has been the default Google Analytics version, replacing its predecessor
Universal Analytics.

GA4 was developed because of the conversation around data privacy and
the implementation of privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA. Additionally,
Universal Analytics was not designed for today’s analytical needs and
expectations since it was not compatible with mobile apps.

GA4 offers privacy-first tracking, AI-driven predictive

analytics, and cross-channel data measurement, making it the
most advanced property available.

And as for the measurement model, GA4 uses a new model that allows the
measurement of both events and parameters via a variety of new metrics.

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 Defining GA4:
Why Do We Need to
Prepare?
It’s a one-way ticket for Universal Analytics: Starting
July 2023, it will be replaced entirely by GA4 as Google
Among GA4’s benefits for brands, Analytics’ new measurement solution. Your business
the following are included: must transition to GA4 sooner rather than later to ensure
continuity in reporting since Universal Analytics will no
★ Better focusing on the user journey and user engagement longer receive data from your website. You now have
less than one year to switch to GA4, but the sooner you
★ Simplified goals and events with a suite of pre-made actions and do it, the more data you will have stored in your GA4
events such as clicks, scroll behaviour, transactions, file property.
downloads, first visits, etc.
★ AI insights for predictive metrics that allow you to make You will have access to the historical data in
data-driven decisions on a larger scale
your Universal Analytics property for six
months. We suggest that you export your historical
data during this period at the latest since you will not be
able to access it after this six-month period..

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 Is This Really About
Privacy, Though?
We’d be lying if we said privacy was the sole reason for switching to a cookieless
retargeting. It’s quite the contrary, actually. Let’s break it down together:

★ Justin Schuh, the former Director of Chrome Engineering, explained the users’
demand for greater privacy, transparency, choice and control over how their
data was being used were the main drivers for the development of GA4.2

★ The consumers’ concern over privacy has indeed grown over the years.
According to a KPMG survey,

86% of US consumers say data privacy is a growing concern for them,

and 68% are concerned about the level of data being collected by businesses.4

★ In 2019, The Irish Data Protection Commission (DCP) started looking into how
Google was providing advertising services across the EU and whether their use
of personal data for targeted apps was in line with European privacy laws.5

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% of Global Desktop However, the DPC has been criticised heavily for not following through
with their investigation and was actually sued by the Irish Council for Civil
Browser Market Share Liberties (ICCL) on the grounds that the DPC’s statement of issue has
excluded data security from the investigation, which ICCL believes to be
the most critical part of the issue.6

It’s a no-brainer that these types of high-profile investigations, combined

with the increased consumer concerns over privacy, pushed Google to
take action. But as you might’ve guessed, there’s still more to the story.
With a market share of

77%, Chrome is the most widely used desktop browser.7 And

yes, this new switch to cookieless tracking and GA4’s introduction will
make Google even bigger in the market.

The decision to get rid of third-party cookies and switch to cookieless

tracking will affect billions and billions of web searches, which means it
will affect the money made through advertising because now, we have
to deal with cookieless advertising and cookieless retargeting. Naturally,
advertisers will be forced to focus their investments on Google products
because they will not be able to track effectively, hence enhancing
Google’s market share.
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Is GA4 GDPR COMPLIANT?
Apart from GA4 and cookieless tracking allowing Google to get even bigger,
there’s one major setback that we need to discuss. The GA4 is not exactly
GDPR compliant.

Google has not reached an agreement with European regulators regarding

data transfer between the EU and the USA. Google saves user data
on US-based cloud servers, including the EU residents’ information. This is a
problem because Google has to comply with US laws since it’s a US-based
tech company.

A legislation called Cloud Act states that when requested, Google must
share certain data, even if it is located outside the United States. And
according to certain EU legislation, transatlantic transfers of personal data
from the EU to the US are illegal if companies cannot ensure the data will be
safe from the US intelligence agencies.

The GDPR law also prohibits certain features, such as data sharing between
Google products. For best results, use IP anonymisation, do not share
GA4 collected data with other Google products, and update your website's
privacy policy when using GA4.
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 The Business Will
Not Be As Usual
★ Upon Google’s announcement in January
2020 about phasing out third-party cookies,
the Association of National
Advertisers released a statement
expressing their disappointment in Google’s
decision. They declared that cookieless
targeting would significantly damage
digital advertising.
For Brands and
Advertisers
Cookieless tracking will undoubtedly make retargeting campaigns more
difficult. Brands and advertising agencies might find adjusting to a
cookieless world difficult since they’ve become heavily reliant on third-party
cookies.
It will be more challenging to deliver relevant offers to consumers
around their current interests or intentions in this new cookieless world. In
light of these changes, predictive algorithms can no longer be used
effectively to show personalised ads to consumers, resulting in decreased
revenue.
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“Although most adtech companies are or have prepared for the shift, the biggest winner is going to be
Google overall. Since the launch of GA4 on 14 October 2020, Google has been pushing digital marketers and
companies to shift into GA4 and has postponed cookieless tracking a couple of times, but “next generation
tracking” is yet to come. Will users be as private as they think they’ll be? What will happen with DMPs, and
CDPs, and will this shift help big adtechs to generate more revenue? So what really was the sole purpose of
this change. Welcome to the new era of the ‘cookieless & private’ experience!”

- Onur Teler, VP of Marketing, Segmentify

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 The Business Will
Not Be As Usual
★ Upon Google’s announcement in January
2020 about phasing out third-party cookies,
the Association of National
Advertisers released a statement
expressing their disappointment in Google’s
decision. They declared that cookieless
targeting would significantly damage
digital advertising.
For Consumers
Eliminating third-party cookies will result in less relevant ads for
consumers, as mentioned. So far, a majority of online content and
services have been free of charge. However, consumers are now
facing the risk of having to pay for services that have been
free until now because of the significant losses that will be
experienced in advertising-based revenue.
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The Cost of Digital
Advertising Will Increase
Cookieless tracking will make it difficult for retargeting campaigns, raising
advertising costs. Advertisers and brands are going to have to be
smarter about budget allocation and learn not to rely on automation as
much.

Let’s illustrate this with an example. Imagine a woman named Ashley

coming to your brand’s website. Sadly, Ashley doesn’t make any purchases
or leave her contact information (e.g. email address); she simply leaves the
website without taking any action.

In a cookieless world, you can’t target Ashley with one-to-one marketing

campaigns. As we’ve said, this causes a lot of confusion among digital
marketers who got so used to building their personalised marketing
campaigns around the data collected through third-party cookies. You
might even say they sort of got lazy.

As a result, building campaigns that create value is going to be incredibly

challenging under these circumstances, which will raise advertising costs.
So you will have to be more strategic about reaching Ashley and your other
potential customers. 21
Time to Face the
Music
The digital landscape is changing, whether we like it or not. Fighting against
these changes doesn’t seem to be an option at the moment. The best way to
approach this is to embrace this cookieless future we’re stepping into as soon
as possible.

The rules of the game are changing and we’re entering a new age for digital
marketing. So don’t panic and start getting ready for the transition to GA4 if
you haven’t already.

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Knowing what & when to recommend,
we know you'll be looking for this ;)

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 REFERENCES

1. “Cookieless” by Adobe Experience Cloud Blog

2. “Building a more private web: A path towards making third party cookies obsolete” by Chromium Blog
3. “Why the new iOS update is such a big deal” by Vox
4. “Corporate data responsibility: Bridging the consumer trust gap” by KPMG
5. “Google's Ad Exchange faces privacy probe by Irish regulator” by BBC News
6. “ICCL sues DPC over failure to act on massive Google data breach” by Irish Council for Civil Liberties
7. “Global Desktop Browser Market Share for 2022” by Kinsta
8. “Expanding testing for the Privacy Sandbox for the Web” by Google

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