The Great Cookie Flip-Flop (Chaos in Motion)#
Google announced they were killing third-party cookies in Chrome. They then delayed it. Then delayed it again. Then said “actually, we’re keeping them but making them opt-in”?
For those in the industry, this is an ongoing saga.
Cookie Apocalypse#
Around 2020, Google—the company that owns both the biggest browser (Chrome) and the biggest ad business (Google Ads)—announced they’d phase out third-party cookies by 2022.
User privacy was cited as the reason but the real reason was regulatory pressure.
This procrastination went on from 2020 to 2025 when they declared they were keeping cookies but users have to opt-in.
Hordes of companies has invested in ‘cookieless solutions’ only to be told it was not happening.
Stutus in 2025#
As of writing this, google has announced a default opt-out system.
Default Opt-Out System When you access the site, a prominent prompt asking if you wish enable third-party cookies shows up. Nobody I know chooses to enable this.
So essentially while 3rd party cookies still exist , few enable them.
What This Actually Means for Advertisers#
If only 5-20% of Chrome users opt-in to third-party cookies (optimistic estimate), your tracking and targeting capabilities just lost 80-95% of reach in the world’s most popular browser. This has implications to
** Retargeting ** as users cannot be tracked across sites
** Attribution ** as its hard ot track which ads led to conversions -** Audience Targeting** is harder as its hard to collect audiences -Frequency capping is poor as the same user keeps seeing the same ads
First-Party Data is King#
Building your first party i.e. 1P data is key to mitigate the above.
First-party data means:
Email addresses and phone numbers provided directly with customer consent
Login or registration data from your own website or app
Purchase history and browsing behavior on your website
Any other data you have collected via customer relationships
Companies that invested in loyalty programs, registration flows. email lists, and direct relationships with proper customer consent mechanisms are winning. Companies that relied entirely on third-party cookies? They’re scrambling.
The Uncomfortable Truth#
Third-party cookies were always a hack—a workaround that gave advertisers power they probably shouldn’t have had. The fact that a random ad tech company could track your behavior across thousands of websites without you really knowing was wild.
With the advent of AI and newer channels to market to people, more privacy-respecting systems are a must. Everyone’s still figuring it out.