In an unexpected (but not exactly surprising) July 22nd announcement, Google shared it would be abandoning its plan to deprecate third party cookies in 2025, finally ending a nearly five-year long “will they, won’t they” waiting game. Does the absence of a top-down cookie deprecation directive mean marketers can relax, confident that their targeting tactics and reach KPIs are safe indefinitely? Not quite.

Over the last few years, the compounding delays from Chrome were in stark contrast to what the advertising industry had been experiencing when it came to data privacy legislation. While Chrome’s cookie deprecation was the can that kept getting kicked down the road, privacy regulations have been moving full steam ahead globally and within the United States. Recently, new legislation for another three U.S. states went into effect on July 1, adding to the growing list of data privacy laws in effect that advertisers have to respect or risk legal action.

One thing is for certain, the rapid progression of privacy laws taking hold demonstrates a legislative urgency that Google’s signal deprecation directives never matched. It is time for advertisers to set their own pace to keep up with the rapidly shifting climate around privacy.

Today’s reality is that consumers want their privacy protected. They want relevant advertising but reject pay-to-play models for content consumption. So where does the industry go from here?

Decoupling privacy and signal loss

Remember: Privacy regulation and signal deprecation are not the same thing.

Privacy laws and regulations govern how consumer data is ethically and legally used, focusing on safeguarding consumer rights. Signal loss pertains to the technological adaptations required due to the phasing out of traditional tracking methods like cookies.

By treating these issues as synonymous, the industry risks assuming that technical solutions designed to counteract signal loss will automatically align with privacy regulations. They won’t.

Adaptations made for signal loss do not inherently address or guarantee compliance with privacy laws, either presently or in the future. Privacy is often a more stringent standard that is evolving even more quickly than the tech that governs ad targeting and measurement.

Privacy marches ahead

For example, at this time, Nevada and Washington have adopted privacy laws that are more focused on the collection and use of health data, whereas states like Utah, Oregon and Texas have emphasized more comprehensive data protections.

Moreover, the anticipated American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) aims to create a federal law regulating data privacy, which could potentially preempt the current state-by-state approach. But like cookie deprecation, the passage of a federal law is also moving on a slower, more uncertain timeline than certain state regulations, necessitating advertising strategies to account for both.

One thing is certain – privacy regulators mean business, and their timelines will not likely be pushed back or cancelled. If anything, they are accelerating. Enforcement of those laws has already begun, which means that advertisers, technology companies and data providers need to pay attention or risk ending up in deep water with enforcement officers.

Future-proof for the right future

If advertisers don’t adopt strategies in adherence with the strictest privacy laws, they are likely looking at a future of continuous pivots, wasting time and money and hindering business outcomes.

Without an advertising strategy that focuses on the evolving landscape of privacy regulations, one-off pivot strategies that only address the next legislative or technology change may become obsolete soon after they are implemented.

The evolving regulatory environment underscores the need to move beyond temporary fixes and workarounds that merely replace old identifiers with new ones. Advertisers need to embrace sustainable, privacy-first strategies that can withstand regulatory scrutiny and consumer expectations.

Instead of developing parallel strategies for every issue related to signal loss, one option is using an ID-free infrastructure, such as AI-powered contextual audiences, for media targeting and measurement.

This unified approach simplifies compliance and technological upgrades and enhances consumer trust by prioritizing privacy at the core of all operations. It thereby future-proofs business practices against current and upcoming changes in the digital landscape.

In the end it’s not about guessing whether your current strategy will continue to be viable after new legislation is enacted or after the third-party cookie is or is not still viable, it’s about preparing for a future where privacy is paramount.