Know Your Data: Controlling Your Cookies

The use of personal data and tracking cookies in marketing has long been a hotly debated topic. To help answer some of the big questions, Daniel Rowles, course director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing and CEO of Target Internet joined Kevin Hanegan, Chief Learning Officer, Qlik to debate the concept of ‘cookies’ and what happens to the data we share with our internet browser.

Although cookies are sometimes perceived negatively in the media, they are actually an essential part of browser infrastructure. Introduced to address the limitations of a ‘stateless’ internet, cookies are text files that track online activity and allow websites to remember log-in details and preferences.

However, it is third-party cookies where the data is shared between browsers that can damage consumer trust. This is exacerbated by a widespread lack of understanding of the implications of ‘opting in’ to website cookies.

As cookie notifications seemingly appear after every click and swipe, and the ways that companies use browsing data to target consumers has evolved, cookie fatigue can prevent users from thinking carefully about what is happening to their data and marketers understanding what they can and cannot do. It can be disconcerting for consumers to feel as if they are being ‘followed’ by brands across the internet.

We asked how can internet users and marketers alike improve their data literacy to take control of their cookies? Do marketers have a good enough understanding of data and analytics to implement cookies effectively? And what role can tech companies and browser orchestrators play in preserving consumer data privacy?

Tune in to the latest episode of Know Your Data to find out more: Controlling Your Cookies With the Chartered Institute of Marketing - YouTube

The Know Your Data series from the Data Literacy Project aims to help you all understand the graphs, charts and data terms you are seeing across the news, online and elsewhere in your daily lives. Check out  previous episodes with Experian and the NCRI, which tackle the important financial data we need to understand, and the thorny issue of misinformation, respectively.

To take advantage of CIM’s growing portfolio of online services, which include: webinars, podcasts and training materials and online courses like the ‘Digital Marketing Channels’ course click here.

If there are any future topics you’d like to cover in Know Your Data, email hello@thedataliteracyproject.org