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The more I've thought about this slide (from the Taboola IPO deck), the more it has annoyed me (aside from the well-covered angle that the quality of ads/sites running through Taboola is....not good)
A thread/
$TBLA
A thread/
$TBLA
First - The title
"Cookieless" is entirely misleading. It even literally goes on to say in the first bullet point that Taboola is not "cookieless", it in fact uses a first party identifier
"Cookieless" is entirely misleading. It even literally goes on to say in the first bullet point that Taboola is not "cookieless", it in fact uses a first party identifier
The first party identifier.
Yes - while the way Taboola works does allow it to serve what browsers view as first party cookies/storage data (see screenshots), they are (IMO) just third party trackers saved in first party context
Yes - while the way Taboola works does allow it to serve what browsers view as first party cookies/storage data (see screenshots), they are (IMO) just third party trackers saved in first party context
So while this will adhere to the restrictions currently in place on Safari et al (and soon to be on Chrome), I think it completely flies in the face of what those restrictions were trying to achieve - stopping entities other than the page that a user is visiting tracking them
Context targeting
Yes, there has been a lot of focus on audience (re)targeting over the last few years, but contextual targeting is hardly something only Taboola offers (unless there is extra tech not mentioned on this particular slide)
Yes, there has been a lot of focus on audience (re)targeting over the last few years, but contextual targeting is hardly something only Taboola offers (unless there is extra tech not mentioned on this particular slide)
Re-hashing of Ids
Someone smarter than me may have to confirm, but I believe this references the fact that even 1st patty cookies on Safari have a shelf life of 7 days *if* the user does not interact with that domain again for 7 days
Someone smarter than me may have to confirm, but I believe this references the fact that even 1st patty cookies on Safari have a shelf life of 7 days *if* the user does not interact with that domain again for 7 days
So in order for this "cookieless" system to work, users have to interact with each domain where a first party Taboola cookie exists, in order for it to be maintained (again, based on my experience playing around with things like the Storage API in Safari - may need confirming)
So that's what came into my mind on seeing that slide. Open to hearing other opinions/data, but from a "privacy" standpoint I'm not a fan of what that is saying
Going back to some thoughts from last week - it's not the data sharing that's an issue for me (or your average user) per se
It's more adtech maintaining the current poor user experience *as a result of* that tracking (being overly (re)targeted by companies, slow load times etc)
It's more adtech maintaining the current poor user experience *as a result of* that tracking (being overly (re)targeted by companies, slow load times etc)
