Google announced on July 23 they finally gave up trying to get rid of cookies in Chrome. Many twists and turns, delays, failed experiments, and lawsuits have led to this moment. Lost in the headlines, however, is that the cookie is still dying – just not how we expected.
“We are proposing an updated approach that elevates user choice,” Google said. “Instead of deprecating third-party cookies, we would introduce a new experience in Chrome that lets people make an informed choice that applies across their web browsing, and they’d be able to adjust that choice at any time.”
Anyone who owns an iPhone will find this familiar.
As part of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT), phone users have been provided a prompt when opening an app, allowing them to opt out of personalized advertising. In short, this prevents apps from tracking people’s activities across other apps and websites to then be used for targeting.
Estimates suggest the opt-out rates could be as high as 80% when a user receives the prompts.
If Google takes the same path as Apple, which seems likely, the cookie will still die. It won’t happen on a single day, and there won’t be an immediate replacement, but cookie pools will slowly dwindle as users inevitably opt out in large numbers.
Imagine that it’s March 2025. Google has implemented the ability to easily opt out of being tracked. A data segment has now lost approximately 80% of trackable users. Firefox and Safari automatically opt users out of cookies. Those still paying to target users using cookies are actually paying more to reach less people.
An overwhelming positive for the industry with anticipation of the cookie’s demise has been the number of privacy-centric targeting solutions that have come to market. There are a variety of ways to reach these same coveted users, at scale, without using a dying technology.
At Brkthru, we have been planning for this moment for several years, and have a bevy of tools at our disposal to make sure our clients don’t feel a stunning impact to this industry change. If you need to stay up-to-speed on all that’s happening in digital media, reach out to Brkthru. We’re on it 24/7.