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# Can Digital Marketing Survive New Browser Privacy Changes?

**Publisher:** Organization Further  
**Author:** Cory Underwood  
**Published:** May 29, 2025  

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[Our Thinking](/our-thinking/blog) > [Blog](/our-thinking/blog)  
**Topics:** Privacy | Marketing | Data

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# Can Digital Marketing Survive New Browser Privacy Changes?

**By Cory Underwood, CIPT, CIPP/US, Analytics Engineer**  
*September 22, 2020*

> ***This is a complex topic – we’re here to help and evaluate how you, specifically, may be impacted.***

#### Which marketing teams will be impacted by new browser privacy updates?

*A cascade of darkness shall descend across the landscape, bathing the industry in shadow…*

You may think that sounds dramatic, but Analytics and Advertising professionals alike sure need light shed on how to prepare for browser privacy changes in the coming months, because **multiple segments of customer traffic across the open web may ‘go dark’**. This article will explore the impact to the advertising industry and what marketing professionals should be aware of as we enter this new world.

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### Are you impacted?

#### **YES**
- Do you run any marketing campaigns?
- Do you run any personalization efforts or site testing/optimization?
- Does your user information help drive business decisions?

#### **NO**
- No customer tracking set up or needed.
- Marketing/tagging metrics not needed past 7 days.
- Existing technical design is compatible with privacy protections.

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### What are the browser privacy impacts on marketing?

For most people, browser patch notes are not, shall we say, interesting reading. They can be **so boring** that not even developers who depend on browsers for their job will read them unless something on the website breaks.

However, for the past few years, browsers have been changing, shifting to a privacy-focused mindset. The details come in waves, with major shifts in how web applications have to be built to preserve current functionality. The notes don’t say that of course, it’s hidden behind some bullet point that belies the impact of the words. Let’s take a look at a few…

#### #1 Campaign Performance
**Here’s what the developer notes say:**
> *Trackers executing script in the first-party context often make use of first-party storage to save and recall cross-site tracking information. Therefore, ITP (Intelligent Tracking Prevention) caps the expiry of all cookies created in JavaScript to 7 days and deletes all other script-writeable storage after 7 days of no user interaction with the website.*

**What’s that mean for marketing?**
It means that most client-side tools will stop recognizing users after 7 days in Safari. While it may be tempting to think, “OK, it’s only Safari…” at that last sentence, there are two things to consider:
- With [**iOS 14, all browsers**](https://www.searchdiscovery.com/blog/data-collection-apple-platform-changes/) on iOS and iPadOS will behave this way.
- In the North American mobile market, iOS holds roughly **53%** market share.

So, from a marketing perspective, this means that unless the conversion event occurs within 7 days (and, in some cases, within a window that could be as low as 24 hours), the conversion won’t be linked to the campaign. This will result in lower Return on Investment on the campaign spend (even if, ultimately, the campaign is the reason for the sale).

The underlying attribution model requires that sticky identifier (commonly found in cookies) in order to deterministically link the campaign with the conversion. Since the browser deletes that cookie much faster than intended, that link is broken.

#### #2 Remarketing
Remarketing relies on a common identifier shared between two websites and that’s commonly done via what is known as 3rd party cookies.

**Developer notes across browsers:**
- **Safari:** *Intelligent Tracking Prevention by default blocks all third-party cookies. There are no exceptions to this blocking. Third-party cookie access can only be granted through the Storage Access API and the temporary compatibility fix for popups.*
- **Firefox:** [*Enhanced Tracking Protection*](https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2019/09/03/todays-firefox-blocks-third-party-tracking-cookies-and-cryptomining-by-default/) *(ETP) rolls out stronger privacy protections…The default standard setting for this feature now blocks third-party tracking cookies and cryptominers.*
- **Microsoft Edge:** *Restrict storage access – If a known tracking resource tries to access any web storage where it may try to persist data about the user, Microsoft Edge blocks that access. This includes restricting the ability for that tracker to get or set cookies as well as access storage APIs such as* `IndexedDB` *and* `localStorage`*.*

They all basically mean the same thing: Retargeting across sites may not work because the link that establishes the connection between sites is broken. Since no previous identity can be established, remarketing is not possible.

#### #3 Referral Traffic
**Here’s what the developer notes say:**
> *All third-party referrers are downgraded to their origins by default. This applies to both HTTP referrer headers and document.referrer. For example, if the full referrer is https://www.social.example/feed?clickID=123456, it will show up as https://www.social.example/.*

**So what does that have to do with Marketing?** 
It means that we can no longer get the exact referral path when the user is coming from another website. For example, Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) links:

*   **Original:** `www.google.com/amp/www.example.com/amp/doc.html`
*   **New:** `www.google.com`

Now we know Google sent traffic, but was it Search? Was it AMP? Was it some other source? We can't tell from the referrer alone. Anything looking at the referrer to make a determination now needs to be cross-referenced with another data point just to maintain attribution.

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### Conclusion
It’s harder than ever to keep up with the cascade of changes impacting the Internet and catching marketing efforts in the crossfire. Two things to know:

1.  **It’s a super complex topic that shows no signs of slowing down.** Privacy impacts are now part of organizational day-to-day operations and should be accounted for.
2.  **We’re here to help.** [Read more about our services, including FREE website audits](https://www.gofurther.com/solutions) to identify the impact browser changes are having on your website tracking.

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### About the Author

**Cory Underwood, CIPT, CIPP/US, Analytics Engineer**
Cory Underwood is a certified data, analytics, and security expert with more than a decade of experience leading strategies across website development, optimization, and data compliance. As Senior Lead Analytics Engineer at Further, he develops security and privacy strategies for both the internal team and our clients.

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### Read More Insights From Our Team

*   [**New Data Privacy Laws in 2025**](/blog/new-data-privacy-laws-in-2025)  
    *Cory Underwood | Privacy, Data, Solutions*  
    New data privacy laws in Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska, New Hampshire, and New Jersey are now in effect.
*   [**Impact of Third-Party Cookie Deprecation**](/blog/impact-of-third-party-cookie-deprecation)  
    *Wendy Ertter | Privacy, Marketing, Solutions*  
    Explore the evolving digital landscape post third-party cookie deprecation.
*   [**Navigating Data Privacy Changes in 2024**](/blog/navigating-data-privacy-changes-in-2024)  
    *Cory Underwood | Privacy, Data, Solutions*  
    Stay ahead! Explore expert insights on navigating data privacy changes.

[View All](/our-thinking/blog)

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