Third-party cookie

Third-party Cookies are not created by the website being visited, but other domain. Let’s imagine a visitor is browsing forbes.com which has a YouTube video on one of its pages. In this case, YouTube will set a cookie which is then saved on a visitor’s computer. This cookie is classified as a third-party cookie, because it’s created by a different domain than forbes.com.

Third-party cookies are the fuel of online advertising. As website owners add their tags to a page, they can display ads as well as track users and devices across the different sites they visit.

Since cookies can be used to store and retrieve information about users and their interactions with websites, they’ve been recognized as a threat to privacy. Because of the widespread use of cookies, data is scattered across apps, websites and services. From a privacy perspective, it’s difficult to say who does what with the data, etc. Therefore, measuring third-party data is getting more and more problematic.

With the passage of CCPA and GDPR, governments are seeking to protect the privacy rights of website users. These laws and regulations create penalties for those that fail to notify web users of the presence of cookies. Thus, third-party cookies have to be used with user consent. These regulations also require website operators to let users know what information is being collected and with whom this information is shared, along with giving them a way to opt out at any time.

Therefore, third-party cookies’ days are numbered. Moreover, Google has announced that it will stop the use of third-party cookies in Chrome by the end of 2023, joining a growing list of browsers ditching the notorious tracking technology. Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox now block third-party cookies by default.

Find more details on third-party cookies on the Piwik PRO blog:

April 22, 2024

“Cookieless future” is just a buzzword – Here is all you need to know about the end of third-party cookies

Key takeaways: The “cookieless” future won’t be entirely cookieless. While major browsers are transitioning away from third-party cookies in the face of user privacy and security concerns, first-party cookies remain an integral part of the web.The demise of third-party cookies will particularly impact digital advertising practices. Advertisers and marketers need to adapt to new methods […]

Read more

April 2, 2024

Implement your data privacy strategy with Piwik PRO Analytics Suite

In the third episode of our Masterclass for marketers series, organized in collaboration with Timo Dechau from deepskydata, our experts discuss designing a successful data privacy strategy.Siobhan Solberg, a privacy consultant and the founder of Raze, takes a look at implementing privacy-focused data collection strategies. She explains how privacy by design works and how to […]

Read more

Other definitions

Recent posts from Piwik PRO blog