Breezy Briefings is pleased to present a brand new essay series by Abraham George titled Why Data Is The New Oil? Subscribe using the button above or Telegram to receive the latest updates as soon as it is published. This is Part 3 - if you missed the previous parts, check out Part 1 and Part 2.
I ended the previous post by stating that the ‘cookie business’ is under threat. These hidden trackers cannot hide anymore and the authorities are out to clip their wings. In 2018, the European Union enacted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Act. This mandates businesses to obtain consent from European consumers before collecting personally identifying data from them. Any company doing business in the EU, even if they are headquartered outside of Europe has to comply with these rules. Violators are penalized heavily. Google, Facebook and Amazon have already paid billions of dollars as fines.
It is because of this rule that we see a small pop-up window asking our permission if it is ok to use cookies. If we don’t want the company to track us we should say ‘No’. I guess many online visitors are noticing that now.
This year Apple rolled out its ID for advertisers (IDFA) update. IDFA is a random advertisement targeting. This new update requires all apps to ask for permission from the users if they are willing to share their data with the developer for advertising purposes.
Only if we consent will the app collect data about our behavioral patterns, whereas they have been collecting data so far without our knowledge nor consent. If we say no, the software will stop collecting our personal data. This is a major blow to those companies that have been secretly collecting our data to generate revenue through personalized advertising.
And the final nail in the coffin for third-party cookie usage came from Google. Google is the emperor of web browsers. Their Chrome browser has almost 68% of the global market share. The company has been delaying the third-party cookie ban but now they have announced that it will happen by 2023. All these developments might hasten the natural extinction of third-party cookies (or at least severely limit their usage).
Collecting first-party data will become the key factor in digital advertising. On that front, Facebook and Snap should be fine and they will further diversify their business model to gain on that front. With every disruption comes an opportunity too. There is one company that will stand tall in this area. I’ll discuss more on that in the next post. Stay tuned.
So, there we go. Thanks for reading Breezy Briefings. If you enjoyed this, I'd really appreciate it if you could take a second and tell a friend. Honestly. It makes such a big difference.
Forward this email. Recommend the newsletter. Share on Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, LinkedIn, Slack, wherever!
Join Breezy Briefings’ Official Telegram Channel: https://t.me/BreezyBriefings
Abraham George is a seasoned investment manager with more than 40 years of experience in trading & investment and multi-billion dollar portfolio management spanning diverse environments like banks (HSBC, ADCB), sovereign wealth fund (ADIA), a royal family office and a hedge fund. Currently, he is setting up a hedge fund where foreign citizens can invest in Indian growth stocks like Tanla operating in hyper-growth markets like CPaaS.