Third-party tracking refers to the practice by which a tracker, other than the website directly visited by the user, traces or assists in tracking the user’s visit to the site. Third-party trackers are snippets of code that are present on multiple websites. They collect and send information about a user’s browsing history to other companies, often for advertising purposes. If the same third-party tracker is present on many sites, it can build a more complete profile of the user over time.

Third-party tracking is slowly becoming a thing of the past. Ad blockers and browser restrictions like the intelligent tracking prevention (ITP) of Safari or the improved tracking protection of Firefox make third-party tracking less effective, consequently lowering data quality. Moreover, companies may be in trouble using third-party cookies on their websites without complying with privacy laws operating in a specific jurisdiction (e.g.PECR, TTDSG).

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

Google Chrome Will Wipe out Third-Party Cookies. What’s Next?
Third-Party Data: How Does it Fit into Today’s Marketing Landscape?