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Tracking Cookies

Google delays tracking cookies ban until 2023

Food Photographer | Jennifer Pallian on Unsplash

I don’t understand what happened?

In recent years, both Apple and Google have been taking steps to increase user security by restricting the use of cookies. Small codes that we call cookies save “some” information on your computer / phone when you browse the internet or applications. Thanks to these, advertisers can understand your interests and create suitable content for you.

It looks nice when you think about it, but people find it annoying because it kind of means you’re being followed. Of course, companies that exploit this feature also ensure that users are right.

Apple had already been blocking 3rd party cookies on Safari for a long time, but Google, the owner of the most widely used Chrome internet browser in the world, announced that it would bring this block at the end of 2021, causing the agencies to break down in advertising revenues.

They postponed the date of this blocking to 2023. The exact date is uncertain, but it looks like it could reach the end of 2023.

So why did they postpone?

They are afraid of making mistakes, and they are right because it is not easy to cancel one of the most widely used features of the digital advertising community and come up with another solution to replace it. And since the entire advertising industry survives on advertising revenues, they don’t have the luxury of making mistakes. They have to tread very carefully.

There is also an important little-known detail. I will explain it just below in the strategy section.

Apple and Google’s strategy

Neither Apple nor Google can act with 100% users in mind. So they have to shift some of that percentage for their benefit as well. Because they have to make money. For example, while Google blocks 3rd party cookies, it produces other solutions with similar features that can be used by advertisers. In other words, he takes the world of advertising a little more under his control. Let’s say it takes one more step towards monopolization with the term familiar to us.

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is conducting an investigation, which thinks that this preparation caused an unfair advantage.

Did you notice? Google, which says we think about the user, is being investigated by institutions that say it thinks about itself. That’s why it’s not so easy to say that we have turned off 3rd party cookies. They also have to create the legal infrastructure correctly and not get a user reaction.

Meanwhile, Apple announced that it will ban applications from detecting IP with the iOS 15 version. IP detection is a feature that allows advertisers to track devices and display user-specific content.

As you understand, the playing field of companies other than Apple and Google is getting narrower.

Apple focuses on revenues earned through secure devices and iOS apps.

Google has been focusing on advertising revenues and what it gets from the Android market, as it has since its existence.

Both are trying to take control of the digital world and the internet world. Let’s not say completely seizing, but constantly trying to get the biggest share of the cake. Especially in the mobile world.

Both Apple and Google are struggling to take control of the digital world and the internet world.

As for my personal opinion, I do not find it strategically strange that companies that have such a share in the change of the world and that make the lives of millions of people easier are trying to take control. I can’t say I got goosebumps.

Because the world still revolves around people’s choices. So if you want, you won’t buy an iPhone. You may not use Gmail if you wish. I hope that these companies will not make the mistake of completely taking away our chance to make a choice. Then things can get messy and this time I get goosebumps too.

Categories
Agenda

App Tracking Transparency

Due to new restrictions announced by Apple this week, apps like Facebook will largely lose their ability to advertise.

You know, Apple is originally a device manufacturer. Not software. For this reason, it does everything it can to make everyone who uses its devices feel safe. It can even be said that Apple is obsessed with it. Because we also know that Apple took bold steps, such as not helping the FBI to hack the terrorists’ iPhones.

What is happening?

Normally, mobile applications save the data of their users and use this data together with the device data. They use them as a source of algorithms, such as displaying user-specific advertisements. With the iOS 14.5 update, Apple leaves the recording of this data on its own devices such as iPhone and iPad to user control. So apps will have to ask your permission to use them.

Technical Details

iPhone and iPad have a device identifier code called IDFA (identifier for advertisers). Thus, by using this code, advertisers evaluate the user’s data related to that device and increase the advertising effectiveness. IDFA can also be used in conjunction with technologies such as tracking pixels and tracking cookies used by Facebook.

With iOS 14.5, The App Tracking Transparency feature will be turned on. Don’t be surprised by the word on, so your data will be hidden. A study says that 80% of users will not turn this feature off. This, of course, means that Facebook’s advertising effectiveness and revenues are greatly reduced.

3rd Party Cookies

At the end of 2021, Google will not allow 3rd party cookies. In other words, after the e-commerce site you are looking for red shoes, the news site you enter will not be filled with advertisements for red shoes. In summary, your rate of being followed on the internet will decrease significantly.

Update : Google postponed the 3rd party cookie ban until 2023 due to various problems.

This is a huge improvement in terms of data security, as Chrome (Google) is now the number one internet browser in the world. Apple’s standard internet browser Safari, on the other hand, did not allow 3rd party cookies for a long time. The App Tracking Transparency described here can be considered as an application version of this security.

As you can see, Apple is a big step ahead when it comes to security. But, as we said at the beginning, this is true both ethically and commercially, since the main income item is hardware.

Reference :

Facebook v Apple: The ad tracking row heats up, BBC News