0:01

We have a lot of clients asking us about

0:03

the third-party cookie phase-out

0:05

that's coming . That's kind of a mouthful

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to say . You may or may not have

0:09

heard of it yet . Not having third-party

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cookies can be a big deal for some and

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less so for others . So let's dive

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right in into what third-party cookies

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are , what is being affected

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and what our next steps are . Welcome

0:24

to the eComcommerce made easy podcast . I'm

0:27

your host , k Saunders . When we started

0:29

this business , all I had was a couch , a laptop

0:31

and a nine month old . My main goal to

0:34

help others . Now , with over 20 years in

0:36

the e-commerce building industry and even more

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than that in web development , I have seen a lot

0:40

. I love breaking down the hard tech and

0:42

the easily understandable bits to help

0:44

others be successful in their online business

0:46

. Whether you're a seasoned e-commerce veteran

0:49

or just starting out , you've come to the right place

0:51

. So sit back , relax and

0:53

let's dive into the world of e-commerce together

0:55

. Welcome

0:57

back to another episode of the E-Commerce Made

0:59

Easy podcast . I'm your host , k Saunders

1:02

. Today , we're diving into third-party

1:04

cookies . You may be wondering what

1:06

exactly is a third-party cookie ? They

1:09

are basically tracking cookies that are placed

1:11

on your computer after being

1:13

generated by another website rather

1:15

than the one that you're currently on . So

1:18

, for example , let's say you're searching

1:20

for a new smartwatch on

1:22

Amazon and then you go to another

1:24

site later in the day , or maybe the next

1:26

day or so , and you get an advertisement

1:29

for one of the smartwatches you looked

1:31

at on this new website and

1:33

it's a website you didn't search for smartwatches

1:35

on that utilizes

1:38

the data from a third-party cookie to

1:40

retarget your interest in that

1:42

product . So third-party

1:45

cookies have made it so much easier

1:47

to target ads back to you

1:49

on other websites . I'm sure you've

1:51

experienced this numerous times I

1:54

know that I have and sometimes

1:56

near Christmas time I have

1:58

to be particularly careful and take special

2:01

measures to either block or

2:03

delete these third-party cookies so

2:05

that I don't give away the things I was

2:07

buying for family members or for others

2:10

for gifts for Christmas . Have you ever

2:12

done that ? I know there's been times in

2:14

the past before I was browsing a new website

2:16

and there was an advertisement . I was like , oh no

2:18

, that's exactly what my kid was looking

2:20

for . They'll know that I bought it if they see

2:23

this advertisement . So once

2:25

that happened to me about once , I was very careful

2:27

to block or delete these third-party

2:29

cookies so I didn't give away things

2:31

like that to my family members that

2:33

might be seeing what I'm browsing on our website

2:35

. I didn't want them to know what Christmas gifts I got

2:37

them right . You want that to be a surprise . So

2:40

later this year , google Chrome

2:42

will be doing away with third-party cookies , and

2:45

they're actually slowly rolling this out already

2:47

now , in 2024 . And this is

2:49

March or April 2024

2:52

. I almost lost track when it was so

2:54

. They're already starting to roll this out in 2024

2:56

, and it's going to completely go away by the end of 2024

2:59

. And , as a typical business owner

3:01

, this actually won't affect you too much

3:03

. I actually

3:05

don't see very many business owners

3:07

use third-party cookies very

3:09

much . It's most likely going to

3:12

affect those that use advanced marketing

3:14

techniques to retarget to their customers

3:16

. So why is Google

3:18

Chrome and other web browsers getting away

3:20

from these third-party cookies ? It

3:23

seems pretty harmless to track your shopping

3:25

habits at first , right ? Well

3:28

, in the worst-case scenario , though

3:30

, third-party cookies are used to track users

3:33

across the Internet and across

3:35

the web , building up , time

3:37

after time and as time goes by , detailed

3:40

profile of users that can

3:42

not only include their shopping interests

3:44

, which could seem pretty innocuous

3:47

and okay to have , but

3:49

, for example , they can also

3:51

include personal information such as gender

3:54

, sexuality , religion , political

3:56

affiliation , etc

3:59

. Much of this information is information

4:01

that we don't really want to be spread

4:04

across the worldwide web and be available

4:06

to any website that we browse upon

4:08

. We may not want people to know these

4:11

things , right ? I know that I don't feel like

4:13

that's absolutely necessary for other

4:15

websites to know that I'm a

4:17

female and my approximately my age

4:19

and where I'm located and things like that . It's kind

4:21

of a privacy issue , right ? So

4:24

the move forward to tracking

4:27

down on third party cookies in the long

4:29

run is better for us for

4:32

all of us , really . A lot of business

4:34

owners are wondering , though is

4:36

this going to affect Google Analytics

4:39

? And the good news is it does

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not . Google Analytics is considered

4:43

a first party cookie , and

4:45

it helps you track how the users

4:48

interact with your site , and it doesn't

4:50

give you information on how they've interacted

4:52

on other websites in general , as long

4:54

as you haven't done their old advanced stuff , that's

4:57

the first . Google Analytics is generally

5:00

a first party cookie , the way I see people use

5:02

it , so the key here is that a first-party

5:04

cookie is just data related to the

5:07

one site you're on , and it's not passing

5:09

this data off into other websites

5:11

. So first-party cookies

5:13

are also handy because they can keep your shopping

5:16

cart stored in your browser . I'm sure you've

5:18

started a shopping cart and order

5:20

and gone to another website . You got distracted

5:23

or a kid was screaming or somebody

5:25

rang the doorbell and you left your

5:27

computer , forgot about it for hours and came back

5:29

and your shopping cart was still there . That's

5:31

the use of a third-party cookie or

5:33

, sorry , a first-party cookie . So

5:36

that is a first-party cookie keeping

5:38

the information about your activity

5:40

on that website , which can be very handy

5:42

, obviously , because they didn't lose the things in your shopping

5:45

cart . They can also store things like

5:47

login information and other key components

5:49

that make your user experience

5:51

better when shopping online

5:54

on that website . So

5:56

, in short , the doing away of

5:58

30-party cookies is a great start

6:01

to better online privacy and

6:03

will minimally affect most business

6:05

owners . So you can rest easier

6:08

knowing that your online marketing efforts

6:10

will likely not need to be changed outside

6:12

of normal regulations to get consent

6:14

for cookies , depending upon the country , your

6:16

website services , your

6:23

website services . So I do have to do a little note here that I am not an attorney and

6:25

therefore anything that you've heard on this podcast episode or any of our

6:27

episodes really is not given as legal advice when

6:29

it comes to privacy laws or anything

6:31

else like that . What we're trying to do

6:33

is to break down the tech

6:36

for you around the

6:38

speak of third party cookies , particularly

6:40

for this episode , so you can use your best

6:42

judgment and get an attorney's advice if you feel

6:44

like you need to . If you feel like you're in the situation

6:47

of third-party cookies or you want

6:49

to make sure you're using first-party cookies correctly

6:52

, I would advise you to get the

6:54

help of a lawyer who knows your

6:56

country's standards and regulations

6:58

. All right , so

7:00

that's it for this week's episode of the e-commerce

7:03

made easy podcast . If you're watching on

7:05

our YouTube channel or listening on your favorite podcast

7:07

app , be sure to hit that subscribe button so

7:10

you don't miss out on any future upcoming

7:12

episodes . And , as always

7:14

, we appreciate your feedback and your ideas

7:16

. A lot of our podcast episodes are questions

7:18

we get directly from you , so

7:21

make sure to drop us an email at podcast

7:23

at bcsengineeringcom

7:26

, or find us on social media and drop

7:28

us a message . We would love to hear

7:30

from you and we will see you

7:32

next week .