Google has announced they will be phasing out third-party cookies in Chrome starting next year - 2024, to be completed by the end of the year. This is in response to user privacy concerns, and in compliance with new regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. Apple and Mozilla are also getting rid of cookies. They are proposing new functionality for cookies along with purpose-built APIs to continue supporting legitimate use cases while preserving user privacy.

What does this mean and what’s the impact of this change?

Third-party cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer by websites you visit. These cookies allow businesses to track your online activity and use this information to serve you with relevant ads.

The phasing out of third-party cookies will have a significant impact on the online advertising industry. Businesses will no longer be able to track users across different websites, which will make it more difficult to target ads. This could lead to a decrease in the effectiveness of online advertising, and it could also make it more difficult for businesses to measure the ROI of their advertising campaigns.

There are a number of alternatives to third-party cookies that businesses can use to track users and target ads. These include:

• First-party data: Businesses can collect data directly from users, such as their email addresses or purchase history. This data can then be used to target ads to users who have shown an interest in the business's products or services.

• Contextual advertising: This type of advertising targets ads based on the content of the page that the user is currently viewing. For example, if a user is viewing a page about cars, they might see ads for car dealerships or car insurance companies.

• Privacy-preserving advertising: This is a new type of advertising that is designed to protect user privacy. It uses techniques such as differential privacy to target ads without collecting personal information about users.

The phasing out of third-party cookies is a major change for the online advertising industry. It will be interesting to see how businesses adapt to this change and how it affects the way we interact with the internet.

Here are some things you need to know about the phasing out of cookies:

• It will start in early 2024, when Google will disable third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users.

• It will be fully deprecated in the second half of 2024.

• This will impact the way businesses target ads, but there are alternatives available.

• It is important to be aware of this change so that you can adjust your expectations and behaviours accordingly.