After multiple deadline pushbacks and industry challenges and concerns, Google is pivoting its data solutions to a ‘user choice’ approach, announcing last week that they are abandoning their plan to phase out third party cookies.

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In place of this change, Google has developed the Privacy Sandbox which plans to meaningfully improve online privacy while empowering people to make informed choices around their browsing and adjust their preferences at any time. 

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In regards to next steps following this announcement, Google has said;

‘We're discussing this new path with regulators, and will engage with the industry as we roll this out.

As this moves forward, it remains important for developers to have privacy-preserving alternatives. We'll continue to make the Privacy Sandbox APIs available and invest in them to further improve privacy and utility. We also intend to offer additional privacy controls, so we plan to introduce IP Protection into Chrome's Incognito mode.’

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What does this mean for businesses? 

While the impending deadline of third party cookie sunsetting is gone, the importance of first-party data remains and is key to future-proofing your ongoing marketing activities. 

More details are to come on the implications that this pivot to self managed privacy controls might present but as people utilise the new Privacy Sandbox settings there will likely be significant impacts to third-party data collection and usage.  

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Next Steps

The focus in the meantime should be to prioritise the privacy of your customers and continue experimenting with cookieless targeting, audience modelling alternatives and advanced conversion tracking while also building first-party data solutions (i.e Offline Conversion Tracking or Conversion API’s) and to adapt to a privacy focused digital landscape. 

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Want to discuss your business's first party data strategy? Get in touch with us today.