8December 2021IN MY OPINIONCookies are an important foundation of the digital industry and have been brought into the foreground of almost every website since the introduction of the new data protection regulation (DSGVO). Meanwhile, consumers are pushing the limits of the cookie by using different end devices, browsers, and various apps, as well as advertising blockers. The complexity of identifying and linking user data for advertising purposes is therefore high and the formerly popular idea of linking users holistically with a unique ID is looking increasingly unlikely to be the way forward. Instead, a rethink is taking place: topics such as the value and protection of personal data and advertising acceptance are becoming increasingly important. Browser providers such as Firefox and Safari have responded to this and already block most cookies. The last big blow to cookies came at the end of 2019, when Google Chrome, the most popular browser with a 64 percent market share, announced that it would also block third-party cookies in two years' time.Now we probably wouldn't be talking so much about cookies if there was a clear and generally accepted alternative. As things stand, however, the industry has not yet been able to agree on what the future of data-driven marketing will look like. One possibility is to keep cookies alive via detours. The Universal ID is often raised as the most promising candidate. In short, such an ID means that users consciously allow the cookie so that it can be used by many partners in the digital ecosystem. Probably the biggest problem with this idea is that they are cookies after all. The risk of blocking is correspondingly high. This is exactly what happened when Firefox decided that anonymous user identification in any form is not trustworthy--not even the neutral industry solution of the IAB."The End of an Era - What You Need to Know for a Cookie-less Future in Digital Marketing"By Tobias Kober, Chief Digital Officer, MediaCom Switzerland
< Page 7 | Page 9 >