If you use advertising on your site to generate revenue, then you may have heard horror stories about what will happen when Google starts to block third-party cookies on Chrome -- currently slated for sometime in 2022.
First of all, this isn't as bad as it may sound. Apple started blocking third-party cookies earlier this year, and most publishers have not seen a significant decline in RPMs on mobile. With about half of the entire mobile market, this is significant.
Google has announced a "Privacy Sandbox" initiative that is intended to keep ad revenues high while increasing privacy protection for people that are browsing using Chrome. It is expected that with Google's clout, this is likely to be adopted by advertising networks and should largely make this change in 2022 moot.
Nevertheless, forward-thinking publishers are starting to work on ways that they can protect themselves. The most common answer is a focus on so-called "first party data". This term, first party data, simply means information that the publisher collects directly from the viewer of his or her own website. The most obvious example is when a user signs into the website and gives the publisher permission to be contacted --e.g., for a newsletter. But there can be many types of first-party data. Some people believe that having a ready supply of first-party data (like subscriber email lists) will ensure that publishers continue to be able to compete successfully for advertising dollars.
By the nature of what Slickstream does, we collect a large amount of first-party data on behalf of the publisher. While we handle the collection of this data, we view this first-party data as owned by the publisher and we make it as easy as possible for publishers to access it and use it in any way they see fit. We never sell or disclose this data to anyone other than our customer who owns the site in question.
If you or your ad network partners need access to the data that Slickstream collects, just let us know and we'll explain how you can get access to whatever you need.
