3rd party cookie deprecation Everything you need to know about third-party cookies What are third-party cookies? Websites use cookies to remember a user’s action so they aren’t asked to perform a task again and again. As a result, they help provide a better, more personalized user experience. Third-party cookies  are cookies that are stored under a different domain than you are currently visiting . So you might be browsing on example.com , but third-party cookies are set by cookieweb.com . They are mostly used a) to track users between websites b) display more relevant ads between websites. The most common third-party entities are advertisers, marketers, and social media platforms.  It is essential to remember that third-party cookies are not the same as first-party cookies .  First-party cookies , on the other hand, are stored under the same domain you are currently visiting. So, if you are on example.com , all cookies stored under this domain are considered first-party cookies. Those cookies are usually used to: a) identify a user between pages, b) remember selected preferences, c) store your shopping cart. You can hardly find a website nowadays that does not use first-party cookies. Why are third-party cookies used? Cross-site tracking:  the practice of collecting browsing data from numerous sources (websites) that details your activity. Retargeting: using search activity to retarget visitors with visual or text ads based on the products and services for which they’ve shown interest Ad-serving: making decisions regarding the ads that appear on a website, deciding when to serve these ads, and collecting data (and reporting said data including impressions and clicks) in an effort to educate advertisers on consumer insights and ad performance. How do third-party cookies work? Third-party cookies work by embedding JavaScript from one website into another. Third-party cookies store data remembered between browsing sessions. They remember information this way because HTTP, the web browsing protocol, is a stateless protocol. A “stateless protocol” means that data is not saved between browsing sessions. In the HTTP response header, cookie attributes determine whether a cookie is a first- or third-party cookie. Third-party cookies… one common example. Let’s say earlier in the week you looked up some vacation rentals in South Africa. You browsed a few websites, admired the photos of the sunsets and sandy beaches, but ultimately decided to wait another year before planning your vacation. A few days go by and suddenly it seems like you are seeing ads for South Africa vacations on many of the websites you visit. Is it a mere coincidence? Not really. The reason you are now seeing these ads on vacationing in South Africa is that your web browser stored a third-party cookie and is using this information to send you targeted advertisements. You’re unintentionally creating a “trail of crumbs.” Most web users don’t realize that a browser window with multiple tabs open constitutes a single “session.” As you move from tab to tab, you are unwittingly relaying information about your web visit history to other websites and parties. And, closing the web browser doesn’t always eliminate the cookies your computer stores following the session. Depending on the browser you use, you may have to activate this manually. You may be on a website with 3rd party cookies and not even know it. One of the failings of cookie notices is that they don’t often specify what types of cookies are being used on the site. They could be first-party, third-party, or both. But, if the website has advertisements (which many do), then you can reasonably expect the website to be generating both first- and third-party cookies. Are third-party cookies actually useful? Since the late 1990s, online marketers have built their businesses on the ability to track online users and then target them with advertisements, and much of this has been through the use of third-party cookies. Let’s play “devil’s advocate” for a moment. Could third-party cookies actually be useful for users? In a way, yes. The two largest online advertising firms, Google Ads and AdSense, make a valid point that 3rd party cookies are useful to consumers as they create advertisements that are in line with individual interests. After all, if you are forced to see the ads, it's better if they are related to your interests.  The end of Third-Party cookies Pressure from regulators and consumers has led many within the tech industry to declare third-party cookies will soon come to an end. In this section we will discuss the changes that major players are doing and how it will impact digital advertising market.  Why third-party cookies are going away? 3rd Party Cookies power all the ways we track, target, and measure performance in digital advertising. However, they track users silently. As an industry, we didn’t do a great job of educating users how and why we use cookies. And we didn’t give people a way to opt-out. As a consumer, you have little control over who is collecting this information or where it is going—you are able to clear cookies from your own browser, but you’ll never be able to manage or delete servers holding third-party data that has already been gathered. In response to the perceived lack of transparency and control for individuals, data breaches, and “creepiness” in advertising, privacy legislation from the EU and California now give users control over their data. Effectively, these policies give users the ability to block various tracking technologies or request the deletion of their data. Tech companies such as Apple and Mozilla have also responded by giving users control of how their data is used both within browsers and devices.  Implementing and increasing security features to protect the privacy of users is nothing new and has been going on for years now, and for the most part website users will actually benefit from it . One of the first companies to do so is Apple and Mozilla, while others are yet to follow.  Full third-party cookie blocking by Safari Apple first launched Safari Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) within Safari on 2017, where it immediately set a new bar for web privacy standards on both desktop and mobile by blocking some, but not all, cookies by default. With the beginning of spring of 2020 Apple launched a major update to its ITP, the privacy feature that allows the company’s web browser to block cookies and prevent advertisers from snooping on your web habits. In simple sense -  Safari by default blocked all third-party cookies . That means that no advertiser or website is able to follow you around the internet using the commonplace tracking technology.  To blocking third-party cookies across the board and by default, ITP now has safeguards against trackers using the very nature of tracking prevention as a way to keep tabs on users. The new feature set also ensures that websites and trackers can’t use login IDs to digitally fingerprint users who might otherwise be using tracking prevention or other privacy tools. Firefox blocks third-party cookies On 2019 Firefox announced that their Enhanced Tracking Protection will automatically be turned on by default for all users worldwide as part of the ‘Standard’ setting in the Firefox browser and will block known "third-party tracking cookies".  Enhanced Tracking Protection works behind-the-scenes to keep a company from forming a profile of you based on their tracking of your browsing behavior across websites — often without your knowledge or consent. Those profiles and the information they contain may then be sold and used for purposes you never knew or intended. Enhanced Tracking Protection helps to mitigate this threat and puts you back in control of your online experience. Mozilla follows a different approach when blocking trackers and cookies than Apple does. Instead of blocking or limiting all third-party and client side cookies by default, Firefox uses the Disconnect list to determine whether a cookie should be blocked or not. This curated list contains thousands of known tracking companies and is updated on a regular basis. The reasoning behind this decision is to keep the web experience as seamless and functional as possible , since some cookies are crucial for web building. Chrome will block third-party cookies It is not a surprise that with the changes that Apple and Mozilla launched Google would follow. The company revealed its “Privacy Sandbox” in August 2019, an initiative to personalize (or target) web ads while still preserving user privacy. In January 2020, Google announced that it hoped to block third-party cookies from its Chrome browser by 2022 — a move that other browsers, like Safari and Firefox, made years ago. Google has planned to replace third-party cookies with technology developed through Privacy Sandbox. That’s where Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) comes in, which Google says is a “privacy-first” and “interest-based” advertising technology. With FLoC, Chrome will keep track of a user’s browsing habits across the web, and then place the user in various audiences, or “cohorts,” based on those habits. Advertisers will then target their ads to cohorts, rather than an individual user. So if you’re looking for a browser that doesn’t collect your data for ads — as an individual or as part of an anonymous audience — you might want to try a different one. (By the way, you can turn off ad personalization, activity tracking, and delete the data Google has collected about you here .) In many cases this development is a direct reaction to new security holes, workarounds, aggressive tracking and shady business techniques and will most likely continue in the future. Finally, while Google says it is committed to developing and using ad tech that doesn’t rely on tracking and advertising to users, other companies are developing their own non-cookie tracking methods that do, and you could still be tracked by them when you use Chrome (or another browser). The core companies will be presented in another chapter.