What will replace tracking cookies?
Yesterday Google has announced they'll be replacing "FloC" (their proposed replacement for tracking browser cookies) with "Topics API":
What do you think will ultimately replacing third-party browser cookies (and cookies in general)? What tech solution are you using atm?
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Nothing wrong with cookies. They won't be replaced because there is again, nothing wrong with them.
I agree. I think (at least for the next few years) they'll keep supplementing them with in-URL tracking codes. Moving away from cookies would require gigantic effort and understanding across the board.
Cookies have been about to be removed for some 10 years now. It's Lindy proof. The longer the live the longer they will live.
What is coming is governments making cookies a pain in the butt. Governments were able to come up with "illegal cookies" in the last year alone. There is no end to their BS. But cookies as a technology will always be in the browser
Hi Darko, I'm the co-founder of Pirsch Analytics, a web analytics solution that works without cookies. Cookies are just one of many technical solutions, so I don't think tracking will completely go away, but it looks like tides are turning towards privacy-friendly alternatives.
Google seems to understand that they need to change something if they want to stay in the ads business, and also keep GA relevant. FLoC was heavily criticized because you could still uniquely identify a person by combining interest groups. The topics API basically looks the same, but with larger user groups, so I think they are going in the right direction.
Still, I dislike the idea that the visitor's browser sends this information (with an opt-out). The browser should not be built as an advertising platform, but rather a simple tool to view content.
With Pirsch, you get the key metrics (as a website owner), without violating your visitor's privacy. You can learn more about that here or look at our source-code on GitHub.
To be honest, they could always serve ads by targeting websites instead of people (e.g. I want my ad to be shown on websites about "tech", "smartphones"), no need to target the individual. Also, for search-based ads, you already know what the user is looking for (based on the search terms). Overall the conversion rate would decrease, but this shouldn't be an issue for Google as the clients are the ones paying for the ads, not themselves.
Right, I might have exaggerated a bit. Still, I believe browsers should serve the user, not ad companies. Google basically controls the browser market, but I don't think other vendors will implement the topics API. This will be dead on arrival.
This is interesting, but will browsers like Mozilla/Opera/Safari accept this standard? Safari has banned tracking cookies since a few years ago and there's no plan for an alternative.
I'm seeing some products that use fingerprinting/local storage but at this point it seems like a cat & mouse game between the browsers/tracking providers.
We'll prob. eventually have aggregators like Elliot mentioned.
I am happy not seeing "feminine hygiene" products because Google and Facebook know I am a man. Let's fix any "real problems" with laws and social norms. 5-paragraphs of disclaimers and agreements visiting every website... really. You do not tear down every road or any infrastructure because wrongdoers use them.
If I don't want to be tracked... plenty of ways not to be. 99% of this is fine. Like most world-ending new this is driven by the 1%... often the ones that like to tell others how they should live and think.
I really hope the trend is toward more people understanding that tracking every single thing your users is somehow related to your company's success. The privacy trade-off of doing so is no way worth the "nice to have" information you might gain.
I've written more about this topic in this post: Why Fugu doesn't track unique users.
It's going to be an endless cycle between browsers/addons blocking trackers and ad companies coming up with new methods. I don't think there will be one technology that both ad companies and privacy conscious users can agree upon.
Cookies in general aren’t going anywhere anytime soon, are they? How else can the client maintain a user’s session?
I’m not really sure about tracking cookies. I can see it being a browser specific thing in future. GA for Chrome users, “Mozilla Analytics” for Firefox users, etc. Maybe we’ll have aggregators that combine user data from each browser?
That's a good point about having aggregators that combine user data from each browser.
what about localStorage
localStorage isn't secure (as @dnlytras said). But also, it isn't sent with HTTP requests like HTTP-only cookies are. So you can't use it to maintain a secure session with the server
For what? Localstorage is accessible by third party scripts. You don't want authentication specifics (JWT, etc) there
couldn't you use a publicKey approach to encrypt the data in localStorage?