Google has revealed that they will be postponing the elimination of third-party cookies until late 2023, as CNet reports. Google has indicated the reason for the delayed with the change is so the company can chart a better course for advertisers.
While digital marketers everywhere may welcome the change, and consumers concerned about data privacy may be less enthused, this represents the latest step in the data privacy scrap. This also places Apple and the forefront of the topic.
According to Google, the company has recognized that is needs to move at a more “responsible pace”. This means more time for consultation and a wider time period for advertisers to adapt to the planned changes, whenever the final decision is made and the revised plan issued.
For those concerned about data privacy, third-party cookies are what helps advertisers, publishers, and data brokers to profile a person. This profiling helps companies to target adverts towards a given individual.
As an example, were such a change implemented then this would prevent an advertiser that recorded a user’s visit to a dieting website from later showing the same person adverts for weight loss programs.
According to Landon Ray, CEO of Ontraport, Apple’s new App Transparency Tracking feature – not Google – is the primary force that will now shape the advertising strategy for many small and medium sized businesses.
Ray explains: “Google has announced that it will be delaying Chrome’s cookie-blocking privacy plan by nearly 2 years. Given that this is the third major delay by Google, this is hardly surprising news.”
So why delay again? According to Ray the latest setback: “Simply underscores the difference between business models that rely on advertising – such as Google and Facebook – and those that don’t, like Apple.”
Furthermore, the news, in effect “Changes nothing for advertisers. Apple owns enough of the market that its new rules are the game we’re all now playing. Google is simply delaying the inevitable, but business owners don’t have the same luxury. The time to begin taking responsibility for managing your own data has arrived.”
In relation to Apple, Ray alerts to the fact that a new study issued during June 2021 has revealed that only 26 percent of Apple users (using iOS 14) have allowed application tracking when prompted to do by the Apple software.
For Ray, this further proves that advertisers need to prioritize collecting first person data. When developing their marketing strategies.
