Changes are coming to Google Chrome and other desktop and mobile browsers. The third-party cookies that have been ubiquitous on the most popular browsers will become a thing of the past. With Google announcing its plan to phase out third-party cookies shortly, digital advertisers are taking notice and preparing for a shift in how they market to audiences and manage digital ad campaigns going forward.
What are third-party cookies and why are they going away?
There are different types of cookies used on Google Chrome and other browsers. First-party cookies are set by the website you’re visiting and limit the sharing of your personal data to the transactions you perform on that website. Second-party cookies allow some of your data to be shared with the next site or sites you navigate to. Third-party cookies operate differently: they’re placed by a different website than the one you’re on and are used to track you across the web, gathering information about you and the sites you visit.
This personal information compiled by third party cookies can then be used to advertise to you. If you look up running shoes and later see an ad for running shoes, that’s one example of third-party cookies at work. A growing demand for greater privacy among Chrome and other browser users, however, is behind the push to eliminate third-party cookies. Some browsers have already gotten rid of these cookies and Google’s decision to remove them from Chrome browsers – which is represented substantially on both mobile and desktop devices – signals a change in how personal data will be collected and used.
How the end of third-party cookie use can lead to increased ad fraud
Online marketers use the information gathered by cookies to learn more about the people visiting a website. But since third-party cookies are becoming less effective and will soon be obsolete, digital advertisers have turned to “fingerprinting” to get an idea of who a site user is. Fingerprinting uses an IP address and other identifying factors to create a profile of each website visitor.
Usually, site visitors are legitimate and there to learn more about the products, services, or information on the site. But sometimes site traffic is fraudulent – made up of bots, malware, automated scripts, and other non-human traffic. These fraudulent sources of traffic can be identified by their IP addresses, but unless preventative measures are taken against them, these fraudsters can slip through the cracks and burden a website with fake traffic.
How to protect against fraud during these changes
Cookies aren’t the only way to identify the behavior of fraudulent site visitors – IP blocklists have already discovered millions of IP addresses associated with high volumes of fake traffic. Integrating an IP blocklist into your website can protect it from generators of fraudulent traffic looking to take advantage of the shift away from third-party cookies.
At Fraudlogix, we monitor an extensive amount of data to identify fraudulent sources of traffic. Our IP blocklist is made up of approximately 2.5 million unique IP addresses that can be a threat to a website and a digital ad campaign. Contact us to learn more about protecting against future threats in a cookieless digital advertising world with our comprehensive IP blocklist.
