Google plans to phase out the use of third-party cookies in Chrome by 2025. This change is part of the broader Privacy Sandbox initiative, which aims to develop new solutions for tracking and advertising that respect user privacy. Safari, Firefox, and other browsers are also discontinuing or have already discontinued the use of third-party cookies.

Updated 25/07/2024:
Google altered its plan

Just a month after the publication of this blog post, Google announced on 23 July that it would abandon its plan to end support for third-party cookies in Chrome. The goal of the new development plan is the same as before, protecting user privacy, but the method has changed to improving user-managed privacy and cookie settings in Chrome.

Despite the change, it benefits web services to collect their own analytics data from visitors and also own the data after collection (known as "1st party data"). At the same time, third-party cookies can be kept to a minimum on the website.

What is a third-party cookie?

Third-party cookies are cookies set by someone other than the website the user is visiting. These cookies are placed in the user's browser to track their movements across different websites. They gather information about the user's online behaviour, such as the pages they visit, the content they view, and how they react to content. Examples of third-party cookies include those of ad networks (such as Google Ads and Meta), Google Analytics cookies, and other social media cookies.

Once support for third-party cookies is removed from browsers, the collection of tracking data will be prevented unless the tracking solution is implemented in a new way. The lack of tracking data poses problems for analytics and tracking solutions as well as for targeted advertising.

Solution: Server-Side Analytics 

When the analytics solution is moved to the company's own server, or "server-side", analytics and ad management can be built as a first-party implementation. This differs from traditional (client-side) tracking, where information is collected in the visitor's browser and then sent to a third-party provider. Client-side analytics are hindered by various ad blockers and browser restrictions. In server-side analytics, these issues do not exist — it provides a more comprehensive and reliable overview.

In a first-party implementation, there is no data loss. All data for which the user has given consent for tracking can be collected in the company's own data environment. This helps companies better understand their customers and improve the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.

Benefits summarised:

• Better data security and privacy: The company has full control over the collected data, which can be stored and processed on its own server.

• No data loss: All the data for which the user has consented to tracking can be collected.

• More comprehensive and accurate analytics: Companies can gather more data and combine it with other data sources, allowing for more comprehensive and accurate analytics.

• More effective tracking of marketing campaigns: Companies can use analytical data to better target and improve their marketing campaigns.

Crasman offers server-side analytics solutions

Crasman’s Google Server Side Analytics hosting service provides a reliable and secure way to manage the analytics of a website or application. With server-side tracking, more in-depth and precise information about user behaviour can be obtained compared to traditional methods. The service includes a fully managed hosting solution that integrates seamlessly with the company’s existing analytics infrastructure. The solution speeds up data processing, improves security, and reduces browser load. All of this enhances site performance and user experience.

Alongside Google Analytics, we also offer Matomo analytics implemented as a server-side solution. It is an open-source analytics solution that provides full ownership of the collected data.

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