Taking the biscuit

Google has pulled the plug on blocking cookies, throwing the world of advertising, marketing and media into confusion. So, wonders Paul Skeldon. what happens now?

Google has announced that, after four years, it is abandoning its plan to axe third-party cookies from Chrome, instead offering users the ability to turn cookies off if they want to at the browser level. The move brings to an end Privacy Sandbox, the project Google set up to end the use of cookies that gather third party user info as people surf the web, a volte face brought about after Google says time spent “considering the impact of the changes on publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising”.

So, what does it mean for the internet and all of us who use it to make a living?

IMPACT ON ADVERTISERS

The bigger implication will be for advertisers. They will continue to be able to gather data on web users and continue to tailor experiences to those users. Many argue that cookies actually make the web better. While ads can be annoying, the fact that the ads that do pop up are, in theory, of some relevance to each user, does make the web experience more pleasant – at least in the sense that without them it would be horrendous barrage or random ads bombarding users.

IMPACT ON MEDIA

“The number one impact is the internet is going to remain free,” Steve Silvers, executive

vice president of global creative, media and ecosystem at Kantar, told CNBC. “Without third-party cookies, website owners were struggling to figure out how to monetise their audiences and this is one of the reasons there’s been such an increase in gated or paywalled content in recent years.”

Ironically, certain media publishers could even begin to drop content, paywalls, Silvers adds. This could have an impact on telemedia billing companies and DCB providers, as they have built businesses around micropayments for access to paywall content.

IMPACT ON COMMERCE

The impact of the move on advertising is likely to have a profound impact on commerce, with many merchants able to rely on access to third party data targeted ads and so better click through rates.

However, it may also hit the nascent commerce media market, where merchants and retailers have done much to leverage their first party data to sell advertising space on their websites to brands seeking to target those users. This nascent business could well be dented by the resurrection of cookies as many brands won’t see the need to reinvent the wheel. The mood music around

commerce media is pointing to it taking a hit from the nondemise of cookies, however some think that it will be boom to brands all round.

Dimitrios Koromilas, Director of Platform Services, EMEA, at Acxiom, says: “Even with Google’s latest decision on cookies, first-party data remains the new currency across the enterprise, not just for the marketing department. Gathering information to create a holistic view of your customer base, which can only be done with first-party data, is pivotal in helping businesses stand out from an increasingly competitive crowd.”

WHAT LIES AHEAD?

The big question is what happens next? Europe’s Internet Advertising Board (IAB) has been quick to point out that, while ending the ending of cookies is probably welcome, the detail lies in what comes after.

Given the lack of detailed information on the user choice functionality that Google proposes to introduce instead of deprecating third-party cookies, it is currently challenging to fully assess the implications

of this announcement on the broader ecosystem.

However, IAB Europe emphasises the following key considerations that should be addressed in any alternative approach implemented in Chrome: Firstly, user controls in relation to the setting of cookies and processing of personal data for advertising purposes are already the object of industrywide standards that draw on the detailed requirements laid down in the GDPR and ePrivacy Directive. These standards take account of the fact that browser-level user choices cannot enable the establishment of informed and specific consent under GDPR. It is unclear what value the addition of a supplementary choice layer, with the attendant risk of introducing a fragmented user experience, would deliver.

Secondly, it would seem likely that such an approach would entail the same prejudice to publishers as Apple’s ATT, which is currently the object of antitrust scrutiny in several EU jurisdictions. The manner in which controls connected to the availability of third-party cookies will be presented to end-users and articulated with the existing controls already provided for the Privacy Sandbox APIs will be of particular importance to evaluate the impact on competition.

Finally, IAB says it would call on Google to ensure that the development is done in close collaboration with industry standard-setting organisations and takes good account of industry feedback, even as it continues to refine and improve the Sandbox tools. In this connection, it is relevant to acknowledge Google’s record of industry engagement on the Privacy Sandbox up to now, while being clear-eyed about the risks evoked above in relation to the alternative approach announced yesterday.