How can personalization and data privacy co-exist?

The cookie apocalypse rolls on, threatening our personalization and targeted ad efforts.

Google said it will block third-party cookies in Chrome soon, and that it won’t support any of the industry proposals for replacements.

This is something I predicted in my book Marketing Rebellion. Any time marketers take advantage of consumers, the consumers will revolt, and they will eventually win. The privacy moves by Apple and Google are simply a response to the inevitable.

There’s a lot at stake — online advertising is a $300 billion business and it pays for half the web!

My friends at SoloSegment recently produced an exceptional research piece addressing this issue and it’s a must-read for digital marketers. The research not only lays out the problem, it proposes a practical solution — predictive personalization. (I am an unpaid advisor to Solo Segment and was not paid for this post).

The threat is imminent

A few highlights from this research report:

• SoloSegment documents that consumers are taking privacy into their own hands. More than 50 percent regularly delete cookies and nearly half use private browsing windows. About 45 percent use ad-blocking software.