top of page

Help

Guide to Cookies

What actually are cookies?

the internet type 

Before considering solutions for a post-cookie world, we need to understand how existing technologies operate. This page provides a contextual briefing on cookies and the latest industry developments. Formally known as HTTP cookies, these small pieces of data are stored in a users' browser to retain information about their use of a webpage[1]. They have many functions including, keeping track of a user's browsing history to remember log-in details and serving targeted ads. The chunks of code help website owners understand what traffic arrives on their page, working as an identifier to recognise users. Each user's cookie will have a unique ID number so that if a customer visits one webpage three times, the cookie will still register one individual viewer, not three[2].

How they work.

When you visit a webpage for the first time, it will likely request and, if accepted, put a cookie on your hard drive that has a unique location code. The site then uses this ID to keep track of your session. The session is the overall behaviour from start to finish on the website. A cookie is specific to one website, meaning they are unable to track you when you leave. They are scoped to the domain name (website) and are not shared elsewhere. When you request a website, the information in the cookie file travels between your browser and the website you visit. Webpages are limited to the number and size of cookies they can place on a user.

First-party Cookies

Tel. 123-456-7890

Fax. 123-456-7890

500 Terry Francois Street, 
San Francisco, CA 94158

​

First, First-party cookies get generated by a website while visiting their page. If you return, information including products added to the basket and payment information is remembered. This data is assigned to your cookie identifier to enhance the user experience while visiting the webpage during future visits[3].

 

Second-party Cookies

These involve first-party cookie data collected on one website then shared with another website. For example, an airline could sell its first-party cookies for a hotel chain's ad targeting use. 

 

Third-party Cookies

On a technical level, they are very similar to first-party cookies, however, they are not collected directly by the domain. Instead, tags (via images, ads, weather widgets, etc.) are added to a webpage by advertisers with the permission of the host page.

 

For example

As an example, Facebook assigns you a cookie to remember your login details.

This cookie is scoped to Facebook's domain name.

Say you are now on a different website, for example, NME.

NME has placed a Facebook 'like' button on their website.

To show this button your browser has to download the code that belongs to Facebook's server while on NME. Therefore, you provide information to the cookie via NME's domain shared between you and Facebook.

Facebook now have data to suggest your activity on NME and can tailor re-targeting content to you accordingly[4]

 

Social Bubble Prototype (8).png
Social Bubble Prototype (9).png
Social Bubble Prototype (10).png

Latest industry developments

As the cookie crumbles

As of 2021, it is hard to avoid press addressing how brands need to prepare for the ominous-sounding cookie-less world. Having become the centre of many re-targeting strategies which create dynamic content following previously shown intent, marketing teams have become over-reliant on the 'big data' opportunities made possible by cookies[5]. While Google is the last of major browsers to commit to the move away from tracking cookies, they hold over 49 per cent of the UK’s web browser market[6]. The market leaders accounting for nearly a 29 per cent share in 2021 global digital ad spend, will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the advertising industry as they change their practices[7]

 

Social Bubble Prototype (5).png

49%

Google hold

of the UK's browser market

Privacy Sandbox

Social Bubble Prototype (12).png

Google is leading its new outlook with the Privacy Sandbox strategy. The Privacy Sandbox is Google's initiative consisting of new APIs to replace their existing cookie technologies. Google's FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) and Turtledove have been drawing the most media attention in their approach to tracking and re-targeting, supposedly anonymising identifiable user characteristics[8]. FLoC is planning on providing advertisers with the opportunity to target groups of 1000s of individuals as a cohort with similar online behaviours rather than basing targeting on information deduced from an individual's cookies. In yet another revision to the timeline, Google has postponed the testing of FLoC to the first quarter of 2022, planning to finally ban cookies in 2023[9]. While privacy groups (including the EFF) and consumers are vocal in their complaints about the delay, many marketers welcome the time to get their post-cookie strategies in order before the deadline[10]

 

Possible alternatives

Another group of stakeholders welcoming the delays include Google's rivals creating their replacements to the cookie[11]. Recently, Apple's ATT (App Tracking Transparency) has gained traction as they continue to place privacy at the core of their brand values, allowing users to opt-in or out of third-party tracking[12]. Alternative models include Advertising ID Consortium's proposal for an open and standardised pool for cookie and device IDs[13]. Also, Unified ID's Solution 2.0 uses hashed and encrypted email addresses as part of an open-sourced ID framework[14]. Gener8, a consumer reward-based system for advertising, continues to make headlines in the UK for its approach to regaining control of exploited data[15]. Meanwhile, Amazon is reportedly creating an unreleased identifier of its own, posing an interesting development to their continued quest for browser dominance[16]. Maintaining updated industry awareness helps Social Bubble identify the scope for differentiation while understanding potential threats within an innovating and competitive market of significant opportunity.

Social Bubble Prototype (13).png
Social Bubble Prototype (14).png
Social Bubble Prototype (15).png

With that knowledge,
discover here...

bottom of page