The future without cookies: what does it mean?

The future without cookies: what does it mean?

The future without cookies (or also known as cookieless) is the novelty introduced by the main search engines regarding the elimination of third-party cookies. Google already introduced this development in January 2024, removing third-party cookies from 1% of all Chrome browser traffic. 

This new circumstance entails greater privacy and security for users and, consequently, brings challenges and obstacles for marketers, and companies and website owners, who have been using these third-party cookies until now to learn about users’ behaviour on a website so that they can subsequently track them in order to show them relevant advertising. 

Consequences for website owners

Many website owners, providers and companies are already facing the challenge of removing third-party cookies. Indeed, any of these actors that use cookies for tracking or profiling purposes must look for new alternatives. 

For users, this impact will be mostly positive and beneficial, since, on the one hand, they will be able to browse without their cookies being used for malicious purposes, and on the other hand, it entails greater security and privacy of the use of their data by third parties. 

For website owners, changes are coming: they must devise a new way to interact with users and ensure a satisfactory experience. 

For advertisers, digital marketing activity will be greatly affected. However, they must find new ways to continue to collect user data.

What a future without cookies will mean

With regard to privacy, the use of third-party cookies entails the tracking and tracing of user behaviour without their consent, as well as the segmentation of users, because, although the GDPR establishes the obligation to obtain their consent, users give it without being aware of the possible implications for their privacy.

It sometimes happens that while a user is browsing the Internet, the advertisements they visit hide third-party cookies on the device, allowing those third parties to track the user. In this way, vendors use these third-party cookies to deliver personalised experiences, such as personalised advertisements that appear when the user visits different websites.

However, with increasing awareness and concern about user privacy and security, vendors believe that phasing out cookies will benefit digital advertising in the long term. 

The introduction of this change will mean that website owners will be forced to set up their own tracking servers in order to ensure that advertising strategies are GDPR compliant.

By not adapting to new alternatives and losing the ability to target users, advertisers may lose targeting and may see their programmatic advertising revenues decrease. In short, it means that companies will no longer be able to track users across different websites and collect data on their behaviour without their consent, so the digital landscape as we know it will be transformed.

Instead, for users, it could mean more control over their data and their digital identity, where they can choose what information they share with companies and where they will be given more transparent information about how their data can be collected and used if they give their consent.

Alternatives?

Website owners and advertisers will still be able to personalise experiences and target users, without the use of third-party cookies, while maintaining users’ privacy and security. Possible alternatives include: source data, permanent web identifiers and tools such as Google’s Privacy Sandbox.

Advertisers may also use alternative identifiers and tracking signals, for example:

• Contextual targeting. This involves placing ads in related marketing channels without requiring user consent and safeguarding user privacy.
• Universal IDs. Delivered through secure platforms that offer interoperable and secure means of tracking users.
• Cohorts. Platforms can use activity information to deliver consistent and targeted experiences to groups of people who exhibit similar characteristics, interests or hobbies. 

Ultimately, the best alternative to deleting third-party cookies is to develop privacy policies that allow users to opt out of third-party cookies.