Google has just announced that it will not destroy third-party cookies in Chrome after advertisers and publishers have spent years trying to find solutions. But according to In Marketing We Trust CEO Paul Hewett (above), it doesn’t matter anyway.
Google said it is introducing a “new Chrome experience” that will allow users to make more informed decisions about their browsing and ad targeting, and they can adapt as they go.
According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, 84% of Australians want more control and choice over the collection and use of their personal information, and only 32% feel in control of their data and privacy.
According to Hewett, who currently serves on the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Data Council, it’s a good thing that Google is giving users more choice, but it shouldn’t change what we as marketers need to do just yet to protect as well as target our customers.
In Marketing We Trust is an independent digital marketing agency. It specializes in data and analytics and SEO. Clients include Skyscanner, Isuzu, MCG Events, Miter 10, Tourism Australia and more. Hewett says data privacy is at the top of the list when it comes to what their customers are concerned about right now. She has written a white paper on cookies and data privacy to help marketers navigate privacy regulations.
Google believes that their Privacy Sandbox has sufficiently protected its users while ensuring that advertisers can target their audiences.
“We developed the Privacy Sandbox with the goal of finding innovative solutions that meaningfully improve online privacy while preserving an ad-supported Internet that supports a vibrant ecosystem of publishers, connects businesses with customers, and provides us all with free access to a wide range of content…
“Early testing by ad tech companies, including Google, has shown that Privacy Sandbox APIs have the potential to achieve these results. And we expect that overall performance using the Privacy Sandbox APIs will improve over time as industry adoption grows. At the same time, we recognize that this transition requires significant work from many participants and will have an impact on publishers, advertisers and everyone involved in online advertising.
To make this solution work, advertisers must embrace the Privacy Sandbox APIs, including Google’s Theme API, Protected Audience API, and Attribute Reporting API, as well as other solutions of privacy by Google, including consent mode V2 and behavioral modeling in Google Analytics 4 and improved Conversion, consent mode and conversion modeling in Google Ads.
This announcement from Google essentially means that users have more choices over their data. It remains to be seen whether users will opt out of cookies or not. If Consent Mode is anything to go by, we could see big differences by country and location.
For example, one of In Marketing We Trust’s clients had 15% of users in Austria opt out, while 40% of users in Germany opt out of cookies. This change can have a huge impact on your data and data-driven decisions.
The data privacy landscape is evolving rapidly. And while this announcement from Google may make some advertisers breathe easy, data privacy will continue to evolve in favor of the consumer. It makes sense to comply with the highest global data privacy standards, such as GDPR. At the same time, the upcoming announcement from the Australian Government about future privacy reforms shows that marketers still need to act quickly to comply with the stricter regulations. This announcement from Google is certainly not a stop sign.