Driven by a changing technical landscape, a growing constellation of global data privacy regulations, all of which are different but similar enough to warrant think about them collectively, and increasing demands from consumers, the concept of data privacy and consent is changing and expanding.
One key aspect of this evolution of the changing role of and approach to cookies and the need for comprehensive consent management as a non-negotiable aspect of doing digital business. This influences how websites are designed and built, how marketing campaigns are executed, and how users interact with websites and decide whether or not they trust a business enough to share their data. Informed consent drives this trend toward user-centric data practices and the need for compliance.
Public expectations, regulation and platform changes have converged to make explicit, auditable consent and privacy-by-design critical. According to Cisco’s 2024 Consumer Privacy Study, consumers are more privacy-aware (53% say they know their country’s privacy law; 75% won’t buy from organizations they don’t trust), while regulators continue to tighten oversight and levy fines.
At the same time, the technical landscape is always shifting. Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) has made device-level tracking opt-in; Safari and Firefox continue to block cross-site cookies by default; and Google has pivoted away from a standalone third-party-cookie removal in Chrome, and stricter EU consent requirements (Consent Mode v2 and certified CMPs). New challenges to privacy arise all the time, such as with AI browser extensions that can bypass consent mechanisms and collect and use a wide range of private data without user consent.
Despite different challenges and changes, brands can win by focusing on first-party or zero-party data with explicit consent, implement a consent management platform (CMP) as a system of record, adopt privacy-enhancing measurement and targeting, and design user experiences that avoid deceptive or dark patterns. Most businesses find that real investment in data privacy correlates with higher trust and sustained ad performance.
Consent is a functional requirement for analytics and ads, not just a banner formality. Sites and apps that can prove that they honor consent preferences stand to benefit in terms of monetization.
Invisible to consumers or not, compliance with the growing collection of data privacy regulations underpins trust building.
Heading into the end of 2025, data privacy regulations have been implemented or are due to be virtually everywhere in the world. UNCTAD tracks privacy or data-protection legislation in ~79% of countries (and rising), underscoring the importance and ubiquity of privacy governance.
The GDPR remains the global benchmark. According to the GDPR Enforcement Tracker, there were 2,245+ fines issued as of March 2025. At the same time, dark patterns and consent design is under scrutiny. The UK’s ICO is focused on tightening cookie guidance under PECR and post-Brexit data privacy reforms.
Meanwhile, in the United States, there is no unified legal approach to data privacy but state by state, new regulations and obligations are introduced all the time. California’s CCPA/CPRA continues to anchor consent-related issues and lead in terms of enforcement.
And in the rest of the world, including in Brazil with its LGPD, India with its DPDP Act, and China with its PIPL, legal mandates require very different measures in handling data.
What this means is that multinationals – or even smaller organizations doing cross-border business – must consider these regional variations (legal basis, consent triggers, cross-border transfers) while maintaining a unified global privacy posture and audit trail.
Privacy maturity is no longer a matter of compliance alone. It is also a go-to-market imperative that not only drives consumer trust but generates sales and marketing results, including higher conversions, churn reduction and brand equity protection.
As the 2024 Cisco privacy study reported, 75% of consumers won’t buy from companies they do not trust. Pew research also reported that 81% of consumers worry about how companies employ their data.
The next phase of this evolution may continue the trend of what has been an unrelenting flow of disruption to digital industry, particularly in terms of what the future looks like for cookies.
For decades, third-party cookies have been the bedrock of targeted advertising, enabling cross-site tracking, retargeting, and audience profiling. Their disappearance forces the entire ecosystem to find new, privacy-conscious ways to reach consumers. We have not yet reached the point that third-party cookies have disappeared, but it makes sense for businesses to prepare for the day when this does happen, relying instead on other more privacy-friendly technologies and strategies:
First-party and zero-party data: Businesses are shifting their focus to data they collect directly from their customers with consent. This includes data from user accounts, purchase history, and direct surveys. Zero-party data, which users voluntarily share with a brand, is particularly valuable because it is accurate and collected with explicit intent.
Privacy-enhancing technologies:
Google's Privacy Sandbox: Google's proposed suite of APIs is designed to replace third-party cookie functionality while keeping user data on the device. For example, the Topics API will group users based on their interests for ad targeting, rather than tracking their individual browsing history.
Data clean rooms: These secure environments allow multiple parties to analyze aggregated data without sharing the raw, personally identifiable information (PII) of individual users. This enables collaborative insights for campaign measurement and optimization in a privacy-safe way.
Universal IDs: These systems create a standardized, anonymized identifier based on a user's hashed email address or other non-PII, allowing for some level of audience targeting and measurement without relying on cookies.
Contextual targeting: This is a return to a more traditional form of advertising where ads are served based on the content of the webpage itself, not on the user's personal data. For instance, an ad for hiking gear would appear on an article about national parks. This approach is inherently privacy-friendly and is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Despite some so-called “signal loss”, US digital ad revenue hit ~$259B in 2024 (+15% YoY). Publishers and marketers are reallocating to video, first-party powered audiences, and modeled measurement. IAB’s State of Data confirms the industry now treats privacy-by-design as permanent, not a temporary roadblock.
Dark-pattern-resistant UX: The EDPB’s dark-pattern guidelines set expectations for neutral choice architecture (no pre-checked boxes, equal prominence for “Reject/Accept,” easy withdrawal). UK and EU regulators are active on “consent-or-pay” and deceptive design.
Consent management platforms (CMPs): The CMP market is expanding rapidly, with CMPs evolving into privacy orchestration layers that gate tags, store consent receipts, and feed BI/activation.
This future landscape is not just about avoiding fines; it's about building trust. Brands that proactively embrace privacy will gain a competitive advantage by demonstrating a genuine respect for their customers' data.
The evolving landscape of consent management and cookies presents both challenges and opportunities across various roles and use cases.
The cookieless future means marketers can no longer rely on the "set and forget" model of third-party audience targeting. The key takeaway is to pivot from a quantity-over-quality data mindset to a more strategic, customer-centric approach.
Challenges: Marketers will face a significant loss of data for audience segmentation, retargeting, and cross-site conversion tracking. This will make it harder to attribute ad spend and measure campaign ROI accurately.
Opportunities: This shift forces a greater focus on first-party data strategies. Marketers can build deeper relationships with their customers by encouraging them to provide data in exchange for valuable content or personalized experiences. This leads to more reliable and high-quality data, which, in turn, can lead to higher engagement and customer lifetime value. Implementing Google's Consent Mode is critical for preserving some conversion modeling and analytics insights even when users opt out of tracking.
The regulatory environment is becoming more complex and unforgiving. Legal and compliance professionals are now central to business strategy, not just a back-office function.
Challenges: Staying on top of a growing number of the growing list of global privacy laws is a constant challenge. The risk of hefty fines and reputational damage from non-compliance means it is not enough to be technically compliant; the implementation must also be free of deceptive practices.
Opportunities: Compliance can become a competitive differentiator. By establishing robust, transparent consent management practices, legal teams can build a framework for long-term customer trust. They can also work proactively with marketing and web development teams to embed privacy-by-design principles into all new products and services, reducing future legal risks.
Agencies face the curtailment of traditional media-buying models that relied heavily on third-party data are becoming obsolete.
Challenges: Agencies must re-skill their teams and adapt their strategies to a cookieless world. This requires a shift from relying on third-party data providers to helping clients build their own first-party data assets.
Opportunities: This is a chance to provide more strategic, consultative value. Agencies can become experts in data clean rooms, contextual advertising, and first-party data enrichment. They can help clients develop comprehensive privacy-first strategies that build brand equity and long-term customer loyalty, offering a more sustainable and ethical value proposition.
Web developers are at the frontline of implementing the technical requirements for compliance, which are always becoming more complex.
Challenges: Developers must ensure that non-essential cookies and scripts are blocked by default until the user gives explicit consent. This requires a deep understanding of how to implement and integrate a CMP with various tracking and marketing tags (e.g., Google Tag Manager, analytics scripts). Performance optimization also becomes a key concern, as poorly implemented CMPs can hurt website load times and user experience.
Opportunities: Developers can build more efficient and user-centric websites. By prioritizing privacy-by-design, they can create faster, more secure digital experiences. They can also become experts in server-side tagging, which allows for more secure and controlled data collection, and explore new APIs like those in Google's Privacy Sandbox, positioning themselves as pioneers in the new digital landscape.
Heading into the near future, we expect to see some clear developments emerge:
First, the OECD, WEF and the FSB continue pushing for interoperability that protects privacy while enabling trade and payments across borders.
Second, we are living in a hybrid environment in which third-party cookies continue to exist, but may not live forever. Marketers will need to learn to operate effectively in environments with or without third-party cookies, always considering user consent and preferences first and foremost.
Thirdly, why should marketers prioritize user preference? Because consumer trust is as good as currency. Treating customer consent as a part of the essential customer experinece will help companies outperform those who do not.
And finally, consent management platforms are your new control plane. The CMP is evolving to be more than just a cookie and consent management banner into a kind of policy engine.
Navigating the road ahead means that the world is moving toward privacy-friendly consent management and cookies, and away from the invasive tracking of the past.
For every organization, the evolving landscape demands not just compliance but a fundamental rethinking of how they handle user data. The most successful organizations will be those that see privacy not as a burden but as a strategic asset – a way to build deeper trust and build customer connections.
The privacy landscape is changing fast with stricter regulations, shifting browser policies, and consumers who won’t compromise on trust. CookieHub helps you stay ahead with a powerful, easy-to-use consent management platform that ensures compliance, protects your brand, and gives your users clear, transparent choice.
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