Consumers increasingly want to have control over what information of theirs is collected, for what reason, and why – as well as how that information is shared. As these expectations have evolved, governments have weighed in. By May 2018, the European Union’s Member States had fully implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which put into place certain rights and regulations around personal data in the EU. By 2019, the EU’s top court determined that users have to consent to all analytic cookies when browsing a website. This immediately changed how websites with an EU presence could capture and report on data, and it changed users’ web experiences. You’ve surely noticed that many websites now ask you to consent to the use of cookies when you first visit them.
The EU’s regulations have had a ripple effect outside the EU, but there are also US regulations being put in place around data privacy. The California Consumer Privacy Act, for instance, which was implemented in January 2020, regulates how personal data is collected, held, and shared, and what must be disclosed to the consumer about those processes. As other state and national governments react to consumers’ desire for increased standards of privacy, restrictions and requirements around how data is tracked and used are only likely to increase – which is why the once omnipresent third-party cookie is on its way out the door.