3rd-party Cookies

Over the years, http cookies have become an integral part of the Internet and are the most popular method of identifying users for personalizing a message. Due to their prevalence, the distinction between the types of computer cookies was not well known for a long time – cookies were simply cookies.

The digital marketing landscape is a very complex environment. There are many players with different profiles of activities addressing the diverse needs of their clients.

The digital world is a complex ecosystem designed to simplify access to information and help people connect easier with fewer limitations. While not paying for it directly, we need to remember that apart from being a content platform, the Internet is also an enormous marketplace, where we – as users – are clients.

Over the past two years, the entire advertising industry has been lively discussing the impending deprecation of third-party cookies and its implications for each side of the ecosystem. There are countless articles outlining the general concept of Google’s Privacy Sandbox and its alternatives, as well as assumptions on what will happen to the industry as a whole. However, when it comes to frequency capping – one of the most important tools for both publishers and advertisers, and arguably the least controversial one privacy-wise – there is not enough media coverage, apart from some calls to address the topic.

The testing season of cookieless tools has started with the announcement of Origin Trials for the Privacy Sandbox proposals. Adtech is now filled with various opportunities for testing – contextual targeting, identity solutions, first-party publisher’s audience data, or group-based methods. It is high time to leave feedback about specific tools in the places where it matters.

In this Media Review, we describe the most important findings from the 2022 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, the status of Google’s preparations for disabling third-party cookies, Apple’s updates in its SKAdNetwork documentation that change the game for mobile ad-tech, and more.