Have you been hearing chatter about cookies, but haven’t seen a recipe involved?
Well, we have answers for you (but no actual cookies, sorry). Grab yourself a few tasty oatmeal or chocolate chip varieties to snack on, and read our little overview here.
First: what are tech types talking about when they talk about ‘cookies’? Kaspersky has a good answer for that:
Cookies (often known as internet cookies) are text files with small pieces of data – like a username and password – that are used to identify your computer as you use a network. Specific cookies are used to identify specific users and improve their web browsing experience. Data stored in a cookie is created by the server upon your connection. This data is labeled with an ID unique to you and your computer. When the cookies is exchanged between your computer and the network server, the server reads the ID and knows what information to specifically serve you.
What we generally call a ‘cookie’ today is an HTTP cookie, built for web browsers to track, personalize, and save information about user’s time spent on a website. A server stores a website’s data, and your browser stores cookies locally to remember your identifier with that website. When you visit that site in the future, your browser sends your cookie data to that website, triggering its recall of your previous session.
First-party cookies (ones created by the website you’re visiting) are generally safe, provided the website in question is reputable and has not been hit by a recent data breach or cyberattack. But third-party cookies can be problematic. They’re not generated by the website you’re visiting, but are linked to ads on a particular page. These cookies let advertisers and/or analytics companies track your browsing history via the ads. (‘Zombie’ cookies are a persistent third-party cookie that are tough to remove. They can be used by analytics companies to track individuals’ browsing history, but can also be designed by hackers to infect a system with viruses and malware.)
New data protection laws have made third-party cookies optional in many jurisdictions (which is why you often get a pop-up asking about your web preferences when you visit a site). Most third-party cookies today don’t materially affect browsing experience, and a lot of browsers are already phasing them out.
So you ask: why the fuss?
Well, for quite some time the digital advertising industry has been using cookies to track usage, target, and adapt messaging for a personalized experience. In 2020 Google announced its plan to move away from third-party cookies; its original target date was 2022, but after a few delays it looks like 2024 is the year it happens. On January 4, Google started testing its Tracking Protection feature (blocking third-party cookies and limiting cross-site tracking for some users), with the intent to phase them out completely in the second half of the year, although this timeline is still in question.
While web users might like this move, it’s a blow to the digital ad industry; with more than $123 billion in programmatic ad spend at stake, it will have to adapt, and quickly. Google has tried to strike a balance by creating the Privacy Sandbox, an initiative that “aims to create technologies that both protect people’s privacy online and give companies and developers tools to build thriving digital businesses.” However, not everyone is on board with the project.
The cookie’s demise in 2024 is by no means a fait accompli, and we will be watching this story throughout the year. In the meantime, we recommend making safe internet browsing practices part of your routine – and watch our blog for more updates.
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