Originally envisaged as a convenient way to store web data, cookies emerged as a powerful marketing tool in the 2000s. For many years, digital marketers relied on cookies for data collection. However, in recent history, new privacy laws, browser features, and plug-ins have changed the landscape of data collection.

Marketers have had to develop tools and strategies to ensure they meet compliance as the internet becomes more and more cookieless.

Conceived as a utilitarian way of storing small chunks of data, cookies were originally used to make web browsing easier. Machines would use the data to identify a login session on a computer. This way, websites could recognize individuals and store data about items such as shopping cart contents, and search histories.

Realizing the potential, advertisers began using cookies as a method to identify and track users across the internet. The development of a cookie-based marketing industry seems inevitable, retrospectively. Developers and marketers built third-party cookies that could be added to websites. These cookies were then used to compile profiles of web users that could then be sold, at a profit, to other marketers and advertisers.

Eventually, websites and corporations were collecting vast amounts of data – often storing it insecurely and without adequate privacy measures. Sometimes, the data was sold with minimal oversight. Many individuals had their information collected, stored, and sold, without their consent. Since then, marketers and sales teams have had to devise new strategies to establish a strong sales framework.

In many cases, this data was also used in ways that individuals could never have anticipated. In 2018, it came to light that Cambridge Analytica built voter profiles using millions of Facebook users’ data. In response, many governments began enacting legislation to better protect consumer data. One of these earliest (Read more...)