Adobe unveiled updated software to help brands target customers with advertising and offers, replacing third-party cookies that are being eliminated in the name of consumer privacy after tracking users across the internet for more than two decades.
A new version of Adobe’s Real-time Customer Data Platform is designed to use brands’ own data, rather than insight from third-party cookies, which are already blocked by several web browsers and are soon to be nixed by Google Chrome. The Adobe product introduced Tuesday will let clients ask consumers for permission to use their information, said Amit Ahuja, vice president, experience cloud products and strategy.
The cookie has been the foundation of personalized web experiences since the mid-1990s when Netscape first started using the tracking technology in its browser, putting a little piece of data on a user’s computer while they were scanning the internet in order to remember them. Amid privacy regulations, ad-blocking software and the decision by browsers to get rid of them, cookies placed by third-parties that provide advertising and tracking services to websites and brands are disappearing. To reach customers and respect their privacy wishes, Adobe’s customers will have to look for new options, including using data they collect directly, Ahuja said.
With the new Adobe software, consumers browsing on a site should expect that it will be much clearer how the site is using their data and why they are being shown certain personalized experiences, he said.
“Your expectations for a brand understanding you and knowing you and giving you a personalized experience are really getting higher and at the same time, the counteracting balance is that consumers are correctly placing more value on their privacy,” he said.