Yesterday, Google announced that it would yet again delay cookie deprecation. While there is never a good time to rip off the band-aid, choosing Q4 during the holiday season and peak advertising traffic was never an ideal time. The majority of the industry feels similar, a survey conducted at a recent ID5 event found that 63% of advertising professionals believed that cookie deprecation would be pushed back to Q1 2025, but removal was inevitable.

While this delay isn’t surprising it is troubling that yet again Google is putting its own interests ahead of people’s data protection. Cookies are a liability and over the past four years, we’ve all come to realize the full extent to which this is true.

Keeping the industry dependent on cookies only enhances Google’s dominant position. Google is not reliant on cookies and has better ways to identify users across browsers and devices as most people are logged into YouTube or its other services. This delay only strengthens their position as a media owner.

While past delays may have been viewed as a lifesaver for unprepared companies, this time we can see it for what it is, a self-serving power move that only benefits one party. 

Ultimately whether cookie removal happens in Q4 2024 or Q1 2025 is irrelevant. The writing is on the wall: the industry and web users are better off without them. 

Fortunately, we have proven solutions that the industry can rely on and many industry players are already reaping the benefits they offer. The availability of better addressability technology has enabled the industry to start the migration to cookieless alternatives. In the past 12 months, we have seen an increase in demand for ID5 services and we now work with hundreds of thousands of media properties and most major ad tech and data providers. 

Unlike the Privacy Sandbox, alternative solutions have been widely tested. At ID5 alone we have published numerous case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of our cookieless ID.

Some of our partners have even tested the ID5 ID in Chrome as well. By using segments created with the ID5 ID Relevant Digital increased impressions on Chrome by 26% on mobile and 36% on desktop. When testing ID5, monetization platform Insticator measured a 17% uplift in fill rate in Chrome when compared to cookies.

So while cookies may be with us a little while longer than expected, the industry has already moved on leaving cookies in the dust…or more appropriately in crumbs.

Yet again, Google has revealed itself to be an unreliable partner in the transition from cookies. Stephen King put it well, “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me three times shame on both of us”. There is no reason to allow Google to fool the industry a fourth time and further increase its control of the advertising industry.

Now is the time to support independent identity solutions that protect user privacy and have yielded results for advertisers and publishers in Chrome and beyond already. 

Let’s stop playing straight into Google’s hand. The time has come to move on.

Mathieu Roche

ID5 CEO and Co-Founder

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