Dive Brief:
- Google will no longer deprecate third-party cookies in favor of a “new path” that it will discuss with regulators and industry leaders, the company said in a blog post Monday.
- The shift follows years of delays regarding cookies’ elimination, most recently in April, as the company grappled with pushback from government regulators, the advertising industry and its own changing priorities.
- “We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice,” Anthony Chavez, VP of Google’s Privacy Sandbox, Google’s alternative solution to cookies, said in the post. “Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”
Dive Insight:
CX leaders felt unprepared for the expected phaseout of third-party cookies, but now the data foundations for insight into customer preferences and behavior seem safe.
However, this doesn’t mean the debate behind third-party data’s role in customer experience is over. Shortfalls in personalization, as well as concerns about customer privacy, are pressuring CX leaders to rethink customer data collection processes.
Looming privacy regulations has some companies turning attention to internal data gathering, even if third-party cookies remain. For instance, Kellanova is focusing on zero-party data — information a customer voluntarily shares with a company — and first-party data to fuel better engagement.
Cookie usage as a whole will continue to evolve despite Google’s change of heart, experts told CX Dive’s sister publication Marketing Dive. Much of the preparation for a cookieless future is already underway, and concerns around customer privacy and consent have leaders thinking about the future of how they want to gather data.
