With all the fear and panic surrounding Apple’s ITP 2.2 and 2.3 updates this year, did the industry forget that ITP-like restrictions are coming to Google Chrome 80, too?
Unfortunately, it appears so, according to a recent AdExchanger article:
“Google is less than two months away from instituting a policy change within the next iteration of Chrome that will severely limit cross-site cookie sharing, and most ad tech companies seem blithely unaware.”
Google announced this change back in May, and while they haven’t made a lot of noise about it since, it may turn out to be the final nail in the coffin for the tracking cookie.
Cookie Tracking in Chrome 80: What’s Changing?
Starting Feb. 4, 2020, Google Chrome 80 will not allow third-party cookies to be sent cross-site by default, unless the cookie is flagged using the SameSite standard and secured via HTTPS. (Head over to this post from the Chromium blog for a deeper explanation of the actual ramifications and what they mean for third-party cookies.)
This update further validates TUNE’s long-held position that postback tracking over pixel tracking is the way of the future. We’ve always recognized the limits of the tracking cookie, and we started preparing for its decline when we invented the “postback” over a decade ago. Now, with Google’s Chrome finally joining the other major browsers in putting third-party cookies on notice, the complete death of the tracking cookie may not be far off.
If you’re a TUNE Partner Marketing Platform customer, you’re in good hands. Our cookieless tracking solution is available right now and free of charge to customers, and our platform has native server-side tracking built in. We also provide SSL certificates for HTTPS security, plus loads of other features that work to future-proof tracking for our customers.
If you happen to fall into the “blithely unaware” category, now is the time to take stock of the situation and do something about it.
Questions about Google Chrome 80, third-party tracking cookies, or something else? Send them over to us at [email protected]. And in case you’re wondering, we do platform migrations, too.
Author
Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she handled content strategy and marketing communications at several tech startups in the Bay Area. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned home to Charleston, SC, where you can find her strolling through Hampton Park with her pup and enjoying the simple things between adventures with friends and family.
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