Google Banned Third- Party Cookies. This Does “Not” Mean That Google Is Done Tracking Users.
The Mainstream Browser, Google Has Announced To Banned The Third- Party Cookies In Attempt To Protect The User’s Privacy. However, It Will Still Collect The User’s Data By First Party.
Google had announced to ban the third-party cookies that are used to collect user data from the website. It’s great news for people who have been annoyed by clicking the consenting bottom that accepts cookies to gather our data. However, for people who are still concern about privacy invasion while using the Google browser, the bad news is Google still collects your browsing habits, activity, and builds a profile for you. Stopping the Third-party cookies does not mean stopping the tracking of the users.
What Is Cookies? Why Are There So Many People Dislike It?
Cookies on websites will collect the user browsing habit, such as how long you stay on a particular site, how often you visit the site, and what activity did you perform on the website. The tech companies will gather the data points and build a personal profile for the users and sell the profile to the advertising company that can then advertise the users the products that they might be interested in. We often feel privacy invaded when we google something on our phone and then the corresponding advertisement will pop out when we are on our social media platforms or another website. As users, we start to notice that the data collecting method has crossed the line and affect our private life. People start to wonder what and when our information is being taken and how far the data tracking can be. This uncertainty has made more and more people be aware of their privacy online and forming negative views around cookies.
Blocking Cookies Does Not Mean It Is The End Of Tracking!
Safari and Firefox had banned third-party cookies a few years ago. However, we still get some of our information gathers while browsing on the search engine. Cookies are just one of the methods that tech companies used to track users. There are much more data collecting methods that the companies used to analyze and target the user interest. Methods such as Web SQL, Local Storage, and IndexedDB are some of the methods that are still enabled on the browser that helps the tech companies to collect user’s data. Marketers can still gather the information of potential online audiences and trigger advertisements that can lead to better conversion.
Google Can Still Track You More “Transparently”
Advertising and google search generates about $31.9billion in Q4 2020. Google would not want to give up on this opportunity. Even though the company blocks third-party cookies, it can still collect first-party data from its users. Google services such as Gmail, Google Drive, and apps that are by Google are still permitted to collect users' data. Kill two birds with one stone! Google can restrict some power from the competition and still stop some privacy invasion and protect their users. Google uses the FLoC to organize the users into groups and categories that share similar interests and then sell it to the advertising firm for advertising purposes. The users will not be analyzed as an individual but their data will still be accumulated. Trust Token API is another method that Google launched in an attempt to protect their user. The advertisers can only see a certain level of the users' information that prevent further privacy issue.
As a marketer, I do see the necessity of protecting the users’ privacy since no one would want their private life to be accumulated by strangers and have their information be sell to different businesses. However, I do also believe that even though the age of cookies may come to an end, the advertising and tech companies will still find other ways and methods to collect data from the users.
