When a company that controls two-thirds of a market announces it will stop using a certain technology, it’s news.

Thus, when Google LLC, which presently owns 67% of the global browser market, declared early last year plans to cease the use of third-party cookies over two years, the news reverberated throughout the digital world. That response has led to “The Cookie Conundrum: A Recipe for Success,” a broadcast of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, in partnership with Quantcast Inc., on May 19 starting at 9 a.m. PDT.

The broadcast will focus on the changing landscape of advertising on the open internet, its consequences and industry-proposed solutions and strategies. Additional showings are on May 19 at 3 p.m. BST/4 p.m. CET for the European audience and on May 20 at 11 a.m. AEST/9 a.m. SGT to reach the APAC audience. Speakers will include Konrad Feldman, founder and chief executive officer of Quantcast; Dr. Peter Day, chief technology officer of Quantcast; Christopher Guenther, senior vice president and global head of programmatic at News Corp.; Xiao Lin, managing director of solutions at Xaxis LLC; and Shiv Gupta, founder, U of Digital. (* Disclosure below.)

Google’s decision meant that the world’s three largest browsers, including Safari and Firefox, would no longer use digital cookies to track user behavior, thereby reducing a significant pipeline worth $336 billion to the advertising industry in 2020.

The imminent end of the third-party browsing cookie marks a key milestone in the tech world’s effort to address a growing chorus of voices around digital privacy concerns.

“Today’s privacy risks are clear,” said David Moschella, author of “Seeing Digital  – A Visual Guide to the Industries, Organizations, and Careers of the 2020s,” in a commentary for SiliconANGLE. “Faces can be identified; our movements are routinely tracked; personal data is used in unknown ways; data is retained forever.”

Ecosystem impact

Google’s decision could have far-reaching implications beyond its own business. There is an entire cottage industry spawned by the use of embedded tracking cookies, active now for nearly three decades.

Ad agencies reap major billings based on brand placement for key digital platforms from some of the largest companies in the world, such as Procter & Gamble Co., Unilever PLC, The Walt Disney Co. and The Coca-Cola Co. There are also hundreds of ad tech firms, which automate the buying and selling of digital ad space and track users to provide advice for advertising clients.

In light of the impact on the advertising ecosystem, the industry response has been to promote alternatives in contrast with Google’s own proposal for a Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FLoC. In March a group of ad executives and ad-tech firms proposed an anonymous identifier — called SWAN —  designed to give users control over the ads they wish to view on the web.

Other web publishers and advertisers have come out in support of Unified ID 2.0, another anonymous identifier. Unified ID 2.0 was introduced by The Trade Desk Inc., an ad-tech firm, and the proposed technology has been embraced by some major publishers, such as The Washington Post, and rejected by others, most notably The New York Times.

Other data consultancies and brokers plan to offer alternate identifiers that use email addresses with encrypted identity signals to track users on the web and target programmatic advertising. Whether any of these alternative proposals will ultimately replace the third-party browsing cookie will be among the topics for discussion during the CUBE event on May 19.

Livestream of The Cookie Conundrum: A Recipe for Success event

The Cookie Conundrum: A Recipe for Success is a livestream event, with interviews to be broadcasted on theCUBE. You can register for free here to access the live event. Plus, you can watch theCUBE interviews here on demand after the live event.

How to watch theCUBE interviews

We offer you various ways to watch the live coverage of The Cookie Conundrum: A Recipe for Success event, including theCUBE’s dedicated website and YouTube channel. You can also get all the coverage from this year’s events on SiliconANGLE.

TheCUBE Insights podcast

SiliconANGLE also has podcasts available of archived interview sessions, available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify, which you can enjoy while on the go.

Guests

Guests who will be interviewed on theCUBE during The Cookie Conundrum: A Recipe for Success include Shiv Gupta, founder of U of Digital; Chris Guenther, senior vice president and global head of programmatic at News Corp.; and Xiao Lin, managing director of solutions at Xaxis LLC.

TheCUBE will also speak with Quantcast’s Konrad Feldman, founder and chief executive officer; Peter Day, chief technology officer; Somer Simpson, vice president of product; and Shruti Koparkar, head of product marketing.

(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for The Cookie Conundrum: A Recipe for Success event. Neither Quantcast Corp., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE