First and Third Party Cookies explained

In the digital landscape, cookies have been a topic of debate and confusion for a long time. The discussion often revolves around first-party vs third-party cookies, and the implications they have on technical matters and privacy compliance. This article aims to clarify these concepts and provide a comprehensive understanding for e-commerce directors.

Understanding Cookies

Contrary to some definitions, cookies are not programs, software, or scripts. They are small text files placed on users’ devices when they visit a website. Servers on the visited site access information in cookies, enabling them to identify and recognize users on subsequent visits. Cookies are inherently harmless. They do not contain viruses, install malware, or cause any damage to a user’s computer. They pose a potential threat to user privacy, but only when employed for questionable purposes.

Applications of Cookies

Cookies have a wide range of applications, making them a key element of the Web. They are used for:

• Session management: logins, shopping carts, game scores.
• User privacy controls & settings.
• User profiling, segmentation, optimization.
• Analytics, attribution, verification.
• Mapping users across platforms.
• Ads frequency capping.
• Targeting & retargeting.

First-Party vs Third-Party Cookies

Technically, there’s no intrinsic difference between first-party and third-party cookies. The distinction lies in the context of a particular visit and who creates the cookie. A domain defined in the cookie owns every cookie.

A website that a user views directly issues first-party cookies. For instance, if a user lands on a website like forbes.com, the site creates a cookie that is saved on the user’s computer.

A party other than the website being visited creates third-party cookies. For example, if you’re visiting forbes.com, and that site has a YouTube video on one of its pages, YouTube will set a cookie that is saved on your computer.

The Trouble with Third-Party Cookies

Third-party cookies pose significant concerns about user privacy. The widespread use of cookies fragments data across websites, devices, apps, etc., making it hard for users to understand what various entities are doing with their data.

The Advantage of First-Party Cookies

First-party cookies offer considerable advantages. They provide greater control and full ownership of data, longer lifespan, and they show users your brand instead of another site. They are more flexible and better for storing and using data for various marketing and analytics strategies.

Legal Landscape of Cookies

In Europe, two major regulations govern the use of cookies: the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulation, also called the EU Cookie Directive.

Employing Technology for Consent Management

Obtaining users’ consent to process personal data is a legal requirement. There are multiple tools on the market that can perform this job. They vary in functionalities, features, and UI. Under names like Cookie Consent Manager, GDPR Consent Manager, or Cookie Widget, you get software that handles your customers’ consents and passes this information to your analytics system.

Final Thoughts

All parties involved should prioritize responsible data collection and use. All things considered, the future is brighter for first-party cookies as they add value to the user experience, and they’re resistant to blocking, unlike their third-party counterparts.