The Future of Ad Tracking

Online advertisers track your web behaviors. By following the sites and pages you visit, these companies gain a clear picture of your identity, which helps them select and display the ads you’re most likely to click while you browse.  

For decades, advertisers have leveraged numerous methods to collect and understand your online data, including cookies. Cookies are pieces of code stored by your browsers each time you visit a website. As you travel from site to site, cookies build an extensive record of your browsing habits.  

However, Google, Apple, and Firefox are each shutting down support for third-party cookies, also known as “tracking cookies,” citing an increased need for privacy online. Additionally, the U.S. government’s movements towards increased data privacy will lead to further regulations against formerly commonplace data-tracking methods.  

An End to Third-Party Cookies  

Only one type of cookie is facing its end: third-party cookies. If a website uses cookies solely for its own internal tracking purposes, these are known as first-party cookies. Third-party cookies appear on the site you’re currently visiting but are hosted by an external server, like an advertising company. Examples of data gathered via third-party cookies include a user’s gender, age, location, and language settings. 

In late 2020, Google declared its intentions to remove third-party tracking cookies from its browser, Chrome. Google later released a blog post in March 2021 stating that the company would omit any further “individual” data tracking after Chrome phased out its use of third-party cookies, which is set to occur in April 2021. Rather than storing an individual’s browsing history for advertising purposes, Google plans to track data collected about the behaviors of “groups of users.”  

Another browsing competitor, Firefox, released a new data privacy feature in February 2021, called Total Cookie Protection.  According to Firefox, this browser advancement “confines cookies to the site where they were created,” thereby preventing cross-site data tracking. In other words, companies won’t be able to follow you from site to site to craft a comprehensive roadmap of your browsing preferences and behaviors.  

Regulating Digital Fingerprints 

While cookies have received a large amount of blame for a lack of online privacy, Apple has taken a stand against data tracking as a whole: Apple now requires software developers to obtain permission from Apple device users before recording their personal data. Apple users will have the opportunity to choose whether they want companies to use their data to create personalized ads for them.  

Just as software companies have begun addressing data privacy needs, the U.S. government is also currently in the process of enforcing new mandates that would further prevent the sharing of personal information online. The Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act is one recent proposition, reintroduced to Congress by Rep. Suzane DelBene, who spent 12 years working for Microsoft prior to her political career. Similar to Apple’s new “opt-in” policy concerning data tracking, the legislation would enable consumers to decide when companies use their private data. According to the policy, companies would also need to publicly announce if they plan to share user information as well as describe the processes involved in obtaining this data. 

One major form of data tracking will disappear soon; however, the internet retains other methods of following your online footsteps. Even the Information Transparency Act does not cover publicly available information, only “sensitive personal information.” Operators managing their online attribution will still want to lean on secure cyber solutions for protecting digital fingerprints.