The half-baked future of cookies and other tracking technologies

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Privacy professionals have been inundated with advice about cookie-based advertising and the impending "cookiepocalypse" but, if they are outside of the adtech world, they may not know where to start with understanding other tracking technologies. Cookies are a digital advertising mainstay. However, cookies are not the only common technologies used in adtech. Recent enforcement actions from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and new developments from large platforms give us a glimpse into our cookieless future, even as they illustrate how privacy scrutiny in adtech is shifting.

Web tracking technologies

To understand why adtech and privacy are often portrayed at cross purposes, it is important to understand what adtech is and identify the web tracking technologies used in the industry. Adtech is an amalgamation of advertising and technology, describing an industry of marketing operations, data analytics organizations and data brokers that together deliver tailored advertising to consumers in digital spaces. In its most basic form, the goal of online advertisers is to direct consumer clicks to a business' website and, from there, get the consumer to purchase the business' product or service. This goal is realized more often when the advertisements shown to consumers are attuned to their wants or needs, which can be determined through their online behaviors, such as clicks, time spent on a certain page or part of a page, and other factors. Enter web tracking technologies that empower behavioral advertising.