Chrome’s Third-Party Cookie Change: What It Means for the Canadian Digital Advertising Industry and Why the DAA Tools Remain Essential
Chrome recently announced that it will no longer phase out third-party cookies in its browser, reversing its earlier plan to replace them with Privacy Sandbox technologies. You can read The Privacy Sandbox’s blog post and the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)’s subsequent statement.
This change has important implications for the digital advertising ecosystem in Canada and globally. With third-party cookies remaining available in Chrome, many existing tools and processes used to deliver and manage interest-based advertising will continue to operate as they do today. The DAA has indicated that it will continue to provide next-generation choice tools for the market, for cookies and beyond.
The U.S.-based Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) also recently announced that it will deprecate its proprietary industry opt-out tools and is encouraging its members to adopt the DAA tools to offer consumers a consistent choice mechanism.
Here in Canada, the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (DAAC) supports the DAA direction and encourages organizations engaged in interest-based advertising to implement or continue using the DAA tools, which are offered in Canada with country-specific features and languages. These tools provide a trusted and transparent way for Canadians to understand and manage their advertising preferences for cookies and for newer identifiers. The DAAC ensures that all tools are operational in Canada and available in both English and French.
Why the DAA tools remain an essential asset for companies
They provide Canadian consumers with a centralized place to manage their interest-based advertising preferences.
They are continuously maintained and updated to reflect evolving privacy laws, industry standards and market realities.
They are supported by Canada’s leading advertising, marketing, and media associations.
They reflect best practices for transparency and consumer choice, reinforcing the value of responsible, privacy-conscious advertising.
As technologies and regulatory frameworks continue to evolve, the need for clear and accessible consumer choice remains constant. The DAA tools are a foundational element of Canada’s self-regulatory approach, helping to ensure that Canadians can make informed decisions about the data used to personalize the ads they see.
To learn more about the DAAC’s consumer choice tools and how to implement them, please get in touch with us.