Third-party cookies: Google backed off, now what?

For years, digital marketing braced for the end of third-party cookies in Chrome. That end is not coming. After several delays, Google walked the plan back: in July 2024 it announced it would not unilaterally deprecate third-party cookies, and in April 2025 it confirmed it would keep them in Chrome, with the existing privacy controls, no new prompt and no removal deadline (Google, Privacy Sandbox).

It is tempting to conclude nothing changed and go back to business as usual. That would be a mistake.

Why "cookies stayed" is not "nothing changed"

Three reasons why relying on third-party cookies remains a weakness, even after Google's reversal:

• Chrome is the exception, not the rule. Safari and Firefox have blocked third-party cookies by default for years. A meaningful share of your traffic already browses without them, regardless of Google's decision.
• The law did not back off. GDPR still requires free, specific, informed and unambiguous consent before any non-essential tracking. Fines reach 20 million euros or 4% of global annual turnover. Google's reversal changes none of that.
• The direction did not change. The trend is still less third-party tracking and more owned data. Building the operation on third-party cookies means building on ground that was already declared unstable, even if the demolition was paused.

The practical takeaway is the same as before the reversal: whoever controls their own data does not depend on a browser's decision.

The durable answer: first-party data in the CRM

First-party data is the data you collect directly from your contacts, with consent, and that stays yours. It is the opposite of renting access to third-party data. A CRM like HubSpot is where that data lives and works, and that is where the problem is solved, not in the cookie banner.

Understanding the customer. The CRM holds each contact's behaviour, preferences and interaction history, collected at the source. You do not need third parties to know who does what.

Personalisation. Personalised experiences make customers more likely to buy. With owned data, you personalise communication, offers and content without relying on external tracking.

Segmentation. Segmented campaigns outperform generic sends. The CRM lets you segment on demographic, behavioural and preference data collected directly.

Value-based prioritisation. Models such as RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) use CRM data to find the accounts that weigh most on revenue and focus effort where it pays.

Compliance built in. Set up well, the CRM logs consent, gives access to the data and allows its deletion, keeping the operation aligned with GDPR by design, not as a patch.

How SmartLinks handles this

The mistake is to treat this as a cookie problem solved with a consent banner. It is a data ownership problem. As a HubSpot Platinum Solutions Partner, we build first-party data capture in the CRM, with consent and governance defined, so your acquisition does not depend on what Google, Apple or Mozilla decide about cookies.

If your segmentation and remarketing still rest on third-party cookies, you have a dependency that regulation and browsers will keep tightening. See your exposure in the Diagnosis.

References - Google, Privacy Sandbox