Cookies and tracking: upcoming changes in Google Chrome
There is more and more talk about the announced abolition of cookies in Google Chrome. What does this mean? Is it really the end of cookies now? Will we soon no longer be tracked through the internet? Or is there already an alternative tool? Read on and find out the most important information about this topic.
What are cookies and what are they used for?
Cookies are textual information that is stored when a visitor comes to a website in order to keep track of the visitor's activities on that website. For example, when the same visitor revisits a website, the cookie sends this information back to the server.
Operators of websites use cookies to keep track of their visitors.
Website operators track user behaviour in order to optimise the site accordingly and provide a better user experience. Cookies ensure, for example, that settings that have been selected once are displayed again the next time the page is called up, or that personalised product suggestions are offered based on products purchased.
Third Party Cookies
In addition to cookies from website operators, there are also third party cookies or advertising cookies that do not originate directly from the website visited. These cookies are used by advertising agencies to obtain information about user behaviour on different websites
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Advertising cookies are not used to provide better user experience, but to display targeted advertisements to visitors. Thanks to these, it happens, for example, that after viewing a product, one is followed across the web by advertisements of that product.
Google Chrome changes
Data protectionists disapprove of the collection of individual user data for advertising purposes and warn of dangers of data misuse. The change in data protection standards and the associated abolition of advertising cookies is actually nothing new. The browsers Firefox and Safari have already done this and Google already announced the implementation for Google Chrome a year ago. However, since Chrome has a market share of more than 60% and Google cookies are widely used, the online giant's abandonment of cookies and the impact of this decision on the advertising industry is hard to imagine.
However, the discontinuation of individual tracking of user behaviour does not mean the abolition of online advertising, Google says. In fact, an alternative is being sought that protects user data, but at the same time allows ads to be controlled and the success of advertising campaigns to be measured.
According to the latest information, the implementation has been postponed from 2022 to 2023: More time is needed to develop the right solution. It remains to be seen whether the abolition of advertising cookies will really make a big difference to what has been known so far.