Last January, Google began the first phase of progressive reduction of third-party cookies, eliminating them from the browsing of 1% of users, selected at random. Subject to any decision by the British Competition and Markets Authority, the plan is to delete these data files by the third quarter of 2024. This puts the online advertising and e-commerce industry in a bind, as cookies Third parties allow a web page visited by the user to include content on other websites. In parallel, Google plans to develop its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which seeks to "create technologies that protect people's online privacy and provide companies and developers with tools to create thriving digital businesses."

Amazon, however, is wary, and is already laying the groundwork to continue its dominance when third-party cookies are no longer available. The company founded by Jeff Bezos has reached an agreement with Reach plc, the largest press publishing firm in the United Kingdom and Ireland, responsible for the publication of, among other newspapers, Daily Mirror, DailyRecord, BelfastLive and Manchester Evening News.

The agreement will allow Amazon to access Reach's own cookies. In this way, the big technology company will be able to know the type of content that users consume, and create personalized ads with said information. In addition, this flow of information will be transmitted through Mantis, a tool created by Reach at the end of 2019, specialized in contextual advertising.

Mantis is capable of storing 125,000 data points daily, individual parts of a given volume of information, and operates with AI-based IBM Watson software. Additionally, Amazon introduced a generative AI tool in October 2023 that allows advertisers to create images for their advertising content.

In addition, the big technology company showed the public the Amazon Publisher Cloud application, a tool that allows advertisers to schedule advertising campaigns with the data of users who access the site of the company founded by Jeff Bezos.

On the other hand, the disappearance of third-party cookies is caused, in part, by the growing concern about the privacy of users on the Internet

With this new Google policy, the role of the Chrome browser as an intermediary between consumers and advertisers is reinforced. Tim Nollen and Sean Kumar, analysts at Macquaire bank, told the Financial Times that "while Google depends on online advertising for the majority of its revenue, it seems naïve to consider that Google's initiatives are aimed at ensuring a healthy online advertising system." "For all parties. Google controls all the cards and without antitrust regulation, Google can remake the industry according to its interests."

In addition, Google's plan can encourage advertisers to track their digital footprint, that is, the information stored by websites accessed from a specific device. According to a report by the ICO, the British consumer regulator, these monitoring techniques "are increasingly common and pose a much greater risk in terms of systematic tracking, monitoring of individuals, including online advertising behavior."

In short, the rise of concern over the use of personal data has pushed Google to modify one of the pillars of the online advertising industry, trying, at the same time, to strengthen its position in that market. In this context, Amazon, a leading e-commerce firm, is working to preserve its dominance when third-party cookies are gone forever.