Cookies crumble, what are the alternatives?

While the implementation of the RGPD last year laid the foundations for greater respect for privacy and user data, the CNIL took another step in this direction during the summer, by clarifying the directives it had defined in 2013. The multiplication of alerts around user data have brought the subject of e-privacy to the forefront and at the heart of this subject is the first medium for collecting user data: cookies. Main change to the direct impact on cookies: the continuation of an Internet user's navigation on a website -after the appearance of the cookie information banner- will no longer constitute a proof of active consent as was the case until now.

Today the majority of websites do not offer a real alternative to the acceptance of cookies. When the banner informing about the use of cookies appears, users most of the time have the choice between two options: “I agree” and “Learn more”. This 2nd option generally only gives information on how to refuse cookies in the Internet browser, it makes the process deliberately tedious for the Internet user in order to limit data loss.

If this decision by the CNIL - announced on July 18 last year - went relatively unnoticed, it is because this new rule will not be introduced overnight. In order to give companies time to comply, the CNIL grants a transition period of one year. Until the first half of 2020, sites will therefore be able to content themselves with Internet users browsing as “proof” of their consent to the collection of their personal data. There is no doubt that such a change - once this transition period is over - will have a strong impact on the number of cookies collected by publishing sites, many cookies being applied today for lack of a simple alternative for users to express their refusal.

Various factors are converging to amplify this trend.

While the evolution of the legal framework is a first indicator of the future decrease in the use of cookies, it is not the only factor that should accentuate this trend.

First of all, we can highlight the evolution of user behavior: more and more informed on the subject, they become reluctant to share their data, which results in an increasingly widespread use of ad-blockers. Today in France, one Internet user out of three uses an ad-blocker, making it possible to block ads and cookies. With a proportion of Internet users using an ad-blocker that exceeds 40% among those under 35, this trend is only expected to intensify, especially as browsers are also starting to integrate tracker blocking features, as is the case for Firefox.

And it is not the GAFA -net market leaders- who will oppose the disappearance of cookies, each of them having developed alternative ways of targeting and distributing advertising within their respective ecosystem, operating as “Walled Gardens”. The gradual disappearance of cookies -far from disturbing the activity of GAFA- will therefore widen the gap between them and the rest of the competition even more, thus increasing the market's dependence on these players.

The end of cookies: what are the challenges for the programmatic market?

Therefore, it is already becoming necessary for the various actors in the programmatic ecosystem to start finding alternatives to the cookie system, both to adapt to legal and technical developments and to reduce dependence on the largest players in the market. The challenge for advertisers and the agencies that support them will therefore be to succeed in continuing to reach their core target audience despite a decrease in the quantity of available user data. These questions must be anticipated: waiting for the disappearance of cookies before starting to think about alternatives means taking the risk of disrupting your activity and/or increasing your dependence on GAFA.

An alternative to user data stands out: contextual marketing. Where the majority of programmatic actors will seek to target the intention, expressed by the user through their browsing history and user data, contextual marketing will focus on the attention of the Internet user. The objective is simple: to place advertisers' advertising content in contexts that are in harmony with the brand, in order to maintain a targeting that remains consistent with the company's persona, while reducing marketing pressure. In other words, focus on attentional targeting over intentional targeting, which is more respectful of users' privacy. To do this, the semantic analysis of publisher sites is carried out, in order to identify and target the most relevant contexts for each advertiser, all without using user data.Article originally published on JDN.