by By the end of the year Google (GOOG, GOOGL) plans to dramatically reshape the world of digital advertising. In a move designed to protect the privacy of web users, Google will end the use of third-party cookies on its Chrome browser, ending one of the foundational technologies of the commercial web.
Last month, Yahoo Finance reported what this change could mean for websites that use third-party cookies to survive. It won’t be pretty. Some experts have described the upcoming move as an extinction-level event for many businesses.
But based on feedback from readers, many internet users have little sympathy for such publishers. One strain of responses to the story felt that it was overdue for a remake in the advertising world and welcomed the overhaul. Some readers argue that advertising in general is ineffective, while others criticized the intrusiveness and ham-fisted nature of the targeted ads that seemed to follow them everywhere in their daily digital lives.
“I guess I’m an outlier, but I’ve never looked at an ad once in my life and said ‘yeah… I want that,'” said one reader.
Another complained, “SO tired of visiting a site only to go somewhere else and be SLAMMED with ads from a company I chose not to do business with.”
A coping mechanism that has become second nature to internet users was summed up this way: “If the ad has an X, I click on it and it goes away.”
Third-party cookies allow companies to track people across websites in order to target them with relevant advertising. Without them, businesses know less about their audience, which reduces their ability to make money through advertising.
The disruption to advertising technology will challenge the internet experience for decades: Users are shown ads and in return get access to free content. For websites that rely on advertising on the open internet, the death of the cookie risks destroying that model and their livelihood.
But the push to end third-party cookies reflects a changing consumer mindset about the need for more privacy. This helps to explain why, despite the risks to websites that consumers face, there is no widespread public outcry to preserve cookies.
Public opinion data shows widespread concern about the use of data and a lack of trust in companies that collect information about people online.
About 4 in 10 Americans say they are very concerned about companies unknowingly selling their information to others or people stealing their identity or personal information, according to a Pew Research Center report published in October 2023.
Almost 70% of social media users say they have changed their settings to manage their online privacy, the data shows. And a similar share of US adults say they have rejected or turned off cookies or other tracking on websites to protect their privacy.
A smaller but still significant share of people – 49% – say they stopped using a device, website or app because they were concerned about how their personal information was being used. And 44% say they’ve used a browser or search engine that doesn’t keep track of what they’re doing.
While concerns about surveillance technology have historically been tied to the law enforcement field, the same survey shows that there is less concern about police surveillance web activity. The contrast suggests an evolving perception of the threats associated with so many online routines, habits and activities.
Ad industry experts acknowledge that bad actors have abused mainstream tracking technology. But they see the deprecation of cookies as a no-brainer – a solution that replaces unscrupulous data harvesters with warped perceptions of ad targeting by responsible businesses that rely on them.
Anthony Katsur, chief executive of the IAB Tech Lab, a trade group for the digital ad industry, said a more private web experience is the right desire but the current approach to getting rid of third-party cookies is deeply flawed. “It’s like punishing the car for the accident caused by the drunk driver.”
Despite some opposition to the digital ad business, the massive ecosystem and billions of dollars flowing through the industry demonstrate its value to many of the largest publicly traded companies and advertisers eager for attention. to draw
From an industry perspective, consumer data shows that targeted advertising is effective. Otherwise, brands would not pay to put their products in front of an audience.
Data from the IAB Tech Lab suggests that consumers understand the trade-off between the ad-supported model and access to free services on the internet. A significant majority (80%) of consumers agree that websites and apps are free because of advertising, according to a report published by the group in January. And 91% of consumers would respond negatively if they had to start paying for the websites and apps they currently use for free. The study also found that nearly 90% of consumers prefer targeted ads and 87% are more likely to click on ads for products they are interested in or shopping for.
Some internet users may be operating with unrealistic expectations, of course, wanting unlimited access to media without subscription or ad costs. Meanwhile, a range of news publishers and streaming companies are running their own experiments, trying to find the right balance of free content, ad tiers, paywalls and ad-free experiences.
All this is playing out during the upheaking of the media industry. Cord cutting is accelerating even though the profitability of streaming services is uncertain. And traffic to many websites has dropped as the tech giants reroute public attention within their walled gardens and AI threatens to make people re-access content on the Internet.
Amidst this uncertainty, many publishers seem to be out of the loop.
Hamza Shaban is a reporter for Yahoo Finance covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on Twitter @hshaban.
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