One of the biggest stories in marketing today is the continued rise of consumer privacy standards — and how they’re fundamentally reshaping the way advertisers and marketers can reach and engage their audiences.
The movement began years ago with regulations like the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Since then, privacy reforms have only accelerated. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) framework, introduced in 2021, drastically limited cross-app tracking by requiring users to opt in. Now, Google has completed its long-planned deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome — a move that marks a definitive turning point for the digital advertising ecosystem.
Why third-party cookies mattered — and what’s next
Third-party cookies offered marketers an inexpensive and scalable way to reach audiences through programmatic advertising. As Andre Yee, Founder of Triblio, put it during a Brightspot-hosted webinar on the topic, “We have been on that drug for a long time. It is going to be painful to get off it.” He emphasizes that while third-party cookies enabled broad reach, they often lacked precision and depth — and now marketers must focus on rebuilding audience relationships from the ground up.
The phaseout is not just a technical shift but a strategic one. Organizations can no longer rely on data they don’t own. Yee explains: “If you want to prepare for this post third-party cookie world, you’ve got to get started with managing your own data in a privacy-safe way and actively doing consent management around your own data.”
First and foremost, if you’re an organization and you want to prepare for this post third-party cookie world you’ve got to get started with managing your own data in a privacy-safe way and do consent management actively around your own data.
First-party data: The new gold standard
In this new privacy-first world, first-party data has emerged as the most valuable resource for marketers. Unlike third-party cookies, which tracked users across the web, first-party data is gathered directly from users via their interactions — think registrations, logins, purchases and content engagement.
Marketers are leaning into creative, consent-based strategies to collect this data — through newsletters, gated content, quizzes and more. Although the volume of data may be lower, the quality is significantly higher — and it’s compliant by design.
Mike Anderson, CTO and Founder of Tealium, sees this shift as an opportunity, stating during our webinar series: “We’ve always felt that it was about building a better first-party relationship with your customers and exchanging first-party data in a way that they were aware of.”
He continues, “Many businesses should focus predominantly on building better customer experiences. Once they’ve done that, they can then look at leveraging the tools that are out there to support it.”
The future of targeting: Alternatives and uncertainties
As marketers explore alternatives to third-party cookies, two solutions have emerged as notable contenders: Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) and Unified ID 2.0.
FLoC groups users into cohorts based on browsing behavior, while Unified ID 2.0 uses hashed email addresses to create anonymized identifiers. Yet both approaches face challenges. FLoC has raised regulatory concerns, and Unified ID 2.0 has struggled with consumer adoption in B2C settings.
Mike Anderson notes: “It will take time to fill and roll out FLoC-enabled browsers. I think FLoC would have a better chance of succeeding if it was rolled out by a third-party, independent system rather than as something managed by Google.”
The role of content and experience in a privacy-first world
With data access becoming more limited, marketers must also think differently about how they engage audiences. David Gang, CEO and Co-founder of Brightspot, urges marketers to consider not just the customer journey but also the “content journey.” He explains, “It is really about taking that content and presenting it at the right place, at the right time, to the right audience.”
Anderson echoes the value of quality over quantity: “It is not about bringing twice as many people, but about getting more conversions out of the people you already have… You do that by building better customer experiences.”
Third-party cookies are created and placed by third parties other than the website the user is on. Used mostly for tracking and online advertising purposes, third-party cookies have been the standard for gathering insights into user behaviors and preferences for many years. They have come under scrutiny recently, however, as users seek to gain more control over their personal data and privacy.
First-party cookies are generated by the website the user is on. First-party cookies are usually favored since they support a better user experience, such as remembering a user’s language preferences and what he adds to his cart. Typically, a first-party cookie will also include an implicit acknowledgment or action by user to agree that they agree to share their personal information to the website.
Introduced in 2016, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was put into place to more closely regulate what personal information companies can gather and store from users within EU member states, including the “Right to be Forgotten” (GDPR Article 17).
Signed into law in June 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires the disclosure by applicable businesses of the commercial reasons for collecting or selling personal information.
By many estimates, more than half of internet users are on Google Chrome. The decision to phase out third-party cookies impacts marketers and advertisers, who are forced to modernize their technology to successfully market to people on the web.
This decision disrupts businesses that rely on third-party cookies to collect data on their customers and prospects, who will need to adopt different tools and strategies to support their marketing, products, and services.
How Brightspot helps marketers thrive in a privacy-first world
Brightspot’s CMS supports marketers in this evolving landscape by making it easy to collect, manage and activate first-party data responsibly:
- Audience segmentation: Build rich profiles based on user behaviors like registrations, logins, bookmarks and content interactions.
- Modular content: Deliver personalized experiences across platforms using segmentation.
- Privacy-focused data collection: Enable consent-based data flows that empower users while providing valuable insights to marketers.
Ultimately, as Gang puts it, “I cannot imagine that a thoughtful executive team is not wanting to hear about this today.” The privacy-first era isn’t coming — it’s already here. And with the right mindset and tools, marketers can not only survive but thrive in it.
