Google announced last week that it was again delaying the phasing out of third-party cookies until the second half of 2024.
Anthony Chavez, VP, Privacy Sandbox at Google said in a blog post that over the past several months’ developers had tested many trial versions of new Privacy Sandbox APIs in Chrome as part of the Privacy Sandbox initiative.
“The most consistent feedback we’ve received is the need for more time to evaluate and test the new Privacy Sandbox technologies before deprecating third-party cookies in Chrome,” he said.
Chavez added: “As developers adopt these APIs, we now intend to begin phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome in the second half of 2024,” he said.
News of the delay was not a surprise for some in the industry. However, many agreed that the push-back had given businesses, publishers, advertisers, and marketers the time to adapt and make the necessary changes to their strategy to ensure preparedness for 2024.
Industry members shared their thoughts to Mediaweek about the delay, what it means for the industry and how businesses should prepare in anticipation of 2024.
Chris Brinkworth
Chris Brinkworth, managing partner of Civic Data, told Mediaweek that Australian businesses should not lose focus on making the necessary changes following Google’s news.
“Over the past 18 months, we have seen publishers and marketers who understand that changes in both ‘consumer perception’ and ‘Australian Regulations’ are not slowing pace in Australia regardless of a technology deadline from Google,” he said.
“We’ve seen them work from simple deep audits of existing ‘tracking tags on page’ (that are coming under new Australian legislation scrutiny and already do not work within Safari environments (30+% of Australian users), through to owned Identity Solutions, Consent Orchestration and Data Clean Rooms attached to their First Party Data projects.”
Brinkworth continued: “In doing so, those businesses have already put themselves in a position where they will take market share from those who have not put themselves in that position even before changes happen.
“They not only have better visibility into their data and future initiatives but, as luck would have it, also have an additional year to run those new initiatives side-by-side with cookies in Chrome for another 12 months (where others do not),” he added.
Brinkworth noted: “How do cohorts plan/measure based on clean room data, compared to run-of-the-mill Cookie based data in Chrome? Only those prepped already, who did not sit on their hands from the last delay, can truly know that now.”
Richard Knott pictured at the recent IAB Data and Privacy Summit
Richard Knott, the general manager of InfoSum in Australia and New Zealand, told Mediaweek he was not surprised by Google’s decision to delay third-party cookie deprecation.
“Google still hasn’t settled on what will replace them for marketers, despite its efforts with its Privacy Sandbox, ‘Topics’ and the defunct ‘FLoC’,” he noted.
Knott said the delay until 2024 should not change marketers and publishers’ work in building their first-party and authenticated audience datasets.
“More than 50% of the web is already third-party cookieless, so even without the demise of these cookies on Chrome, there are already huge unauthenticated audiences to be made addressable,” he said.
Knott also noted that in light of sweeping reforms to data privacy laws in Australia, as recently announced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, businesses will still need to be focused on building out privacy-by-default data collaboration and addressability solutions, “regardless of what Google does or doesn’t do”.
Josh Slightling
Josh Slighting, principal product manager of REA Group, told Mediaweek that there will be a cooling-off effect in the market as people no longer feel the urgency to act immediately.
“Just like we have seen with Apple ATT (app tracking transparency), this is a false sense of security, and I’d encourage people to act as though nothing had changed,” he said.
For the REA Group, Slighting said they are “doubling down on implementing changes” as the additional time allows for an extended test period.
Slighting said that “feeling sunk or waste in investment is understandable.” Still, he optimistically noted: “Hopefully, there is already a far richer understanding of things and solutions actively being explored and tested, so it is not lost!”
Slighting also called Google’s ability to dictate market changes of such significance “concerning” and likely to draw a lot of criticism and further scrutiny from the ACCC.
“Another reason to not slow down now, as being at the mercy of a single entity is a very dangerous place to be,” he added.
Sarla Fernando
Sarla Fernando, ADMA’s head of regulatory and advocacy advisory, said: “As the internet, platforms and data-driven marketing and advertising continues to evolve, it is important for businesses to stay ahead of the curve.
“ADMA remains focused on what the industry needs to do to prepare for changes that are certain to come – whether that be privacy law developments or the eventual deprecation of third-party cookies.
“As the dates for Google’s cookie changes are pushed back, businesses have more time to adapt and change their marketing strategies. However, it is important that businesses do not delay taking the necessary actions to prepare for a cookie-less future. Many businesses have already started to build their first-party data, which will give them a competitive advantage over those who wait for Google’s announcement dates,” she said.
“As an industry, we need to get prepared for the future, regardless of what it holds. It is impractical to base our timelines on the unknown; expecting dates that are subject to change. We know what needs to be done and what best practice looks like, so let’s just get on with it,” Fernando added.
Vinetha Manthena
Meanwhile, Vinetha Manthena, director of digital marketing at Optus added that despite the push back of the cookies deprecation, more work still needs to be done in anticipation of 2024.
See also: Google delays the phasing out of cookies to 2024
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Top image left to right: Chris Brinkworth, Richard Knott, Josh Slightling and Sarla Fernando