Due to this disparity between user expectations and marketing practices, many web browsers are taking proactive steps to limit cookie data collection across the web. In order to support their users, browsers like Firefox, Safari, and now Chrome will block a majority of third-party cookies, effectively ending the way online marketing data collection has happened for over a decade.

Safari and Firefox have a combined usage share of 20-25%. This means that right now, at this very moment, most of your marketing apps, partnerships, and integrations aren't able to reach or track one out of every 4-5 web users. And this has been true for three years. When Google phases out support for third-party cookies in Chrome, your marketing apps, partnerships, and integrations won't be able to reach or track three out of every four web users. By 2025, this will be true for virtually every web user.

What Happens in 2023?

Chrome released a statement in 2020 about its plans to stop supporting third-party cookies entirely by 2023. While this isn't the end of all third-party tracking (as there are many other ways to track users online) it signifies a shift to privacy-first that is unprecedented.

Both Safari and Firefox stopped supporting third-party cookies in 2020, but their combined usage share is only at 20-25% of the total market. Chrome, on the other hand, has over 60% usage share, which means the transition away from third-party cookies is a major one. Most of the big martech names are reliant on all three browsers for data collection. By the time Chrome stops supporting third-party cookies, 3 out of every 7 online users will be untraceable using this method.

Why Third-Party Cookies Are Going Out of Style?

Unlike first-party cookies which store information on a single site (such as a user’s shopping cart information, their login credentials, and the pages they most frequently visit), third-party cookies allow marketing firms to track users around the internet to see what they look at and shop for outside of their client’s websites. This provides a major advantage for marketing companies to target consumers with personalized ads and improve their click-thru and lead-generation metrics.

You can learn more about cookies here.

However, users have no control over this process. The method of third-party cookie data collection has been overused for a long time, and users have grown distrustful of marketing firms due to their indiscriminate use of personal data. Coupled with serious security breaches over the past decade, the trust for third-party martech companies has virtually disappeared.

How Marketers Can Proactively Transition Away From Third-Party Cookies?

By 2023, the way we use cookies and data generators will be permanently altered. This disruption is estimated to have a financial impact of over $10 billion in marketing revenue. Without a plan B, martech companies are in trouble as a vast majority of their services are about to be obsolete. This isn't just a problem for small marketing firms. It’s something the biggest players in the industry are going to have to overcome in order to stay relevant.

Confection is part of the solution marketers are looking for to generate data in a responsible and sustainable way. We offer a cookie-free data generator that integrates with the programs and apps you already use. Instead of rebuilding the entire structure from the ground up, we're creating a user-friendly and responsible replacement to invasive cookies and scripts. Our solution still allows the creation of a personalized marketing experience for the user, but without the security risk or invasion of privacy that consumers no longer accept.

If you want to get ahead of the privacy-first generation, schedule a demo by clicking the button below.