For many years, cookies have been set in browsers in raw quantities when visiting websites, analyzed and used for marketing purposes without the user having an exact overview of this. Volumes of data flowed to marketers even when it may not have been needed.
Better to collect everything first, even if you do not yet know what for. The website operators/marketers thus had a good laugh.
But now the cookie-apocalypse is approaching
For almost a year and a half, the issue of cookieless tracking has hovered like a sword of Damocles over the heads of advertisers and web publishers. The end of third-party cookies has long been implemented in browsers, it is only disabled by configuration, because it would currently cause an apocalypse. Preparations for life without third-party cookies are in full swing at browser manufacturers. Likewise with publishers and advertisers.
Due to the introduction of the GDPR in 2018 and a ruling by the EU Court of Justice in 2019 – Permission & Consent – the storage of cookies is generally only permitted with the express permission of the user.
Technically necessary cookies are not affected (session, shopping cart, language setting).
But how do we continue without 3rd party cookies?
Currently the most exciting idea of FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) from Google. Google’s idea of how best to get themselves out of it without giving up too much advertising revenue. Based on classifying users locally and assigning them to a group with similar interests (“cohort”). Based on this, you will be served the advertising that suits you. A cool approach in itself, but one that is not fundamentally about tracking but much more about a use case for tracking, namely ad targeting. The exciting thing is that the user himself does not reveal any data about himself, since everything only happens in the browser itself – as long as you use the right (Google) browser (Chrome). Of course, there is a certain amount of opposition to this approach from the data protection community, but this is mostly limited to
Ekaterina Ruzhekova
Ingo Schmall