1/24/2023 Update: Justice Department sues Google for "corrupting" ad market Link here The actual filing is here.
Google's plan to deprecate third-party cookies in 2024 may or may not affect the Visual Visitor platform. Why?
Firstly, there is a strong possibility that this deprecation will not occur. Their plan, initially conceived in
2021, has already experienced two
delays. Ongoing litigation in the EU will likely elicit another postponement of several years. According to the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, Google is potentially exhibiting
anticompetitive conduct in the digital advertising market. You can read more about their investigation into Google's practices here.
If Google does move forward with the deprecation, it is possible that our platform will not experience any changes due to the manner in which we acquire and utilize cookies.
In addition, it is worth noting that should these changes affect our platform, our identification rate could decrease a small percentage. Since you only pay for successful identifications, you will simply be charged a lower fee. However, to mitigate the potential decline, we are working diligently to develop additional tracking methods which will increase our overall identification rate beyond 35% of US-based traffic.
Finally, it is important to note that if the deprecation does occur, changes will likely take effect in, or after, 2026.
In summation, it is likely that Google's planned deprecation of third-party cookies will have minimal, if any, effects on our platform.