Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people increased or started their consumption of products and services through the internet. It is not an open secret that many brands use user segmentation through small sets or files of personal data commonly called «cookies». However, in recent years the use of the latter has been involved in many criticisms and doubts.
Although cookies help us avoid having to enter our username and password on many web pages, it is also true that they help many companies to learn more about us and to focus communication efforts on what really matters to us. In some regions its use has been regulated. For example, if Internet portals of the European Union are used, one has the opportunity to choose whether the tracking and marketing cookies are active or not.
Google announced a few months ago that the tests not to admit cookies in its Chrome browser (and it is believed that by extension those that use Chromium as a base) are very advanced. So what is the alternative? This is when we start talking about the «Federated Learning of Cohorts». Also referred to as FLoC, it brings to the public scene a statistical analysis technique used more constantly in the medical area.
The cohort study involves taking a large population and, based on its tangible manifestations or symptoms, defining its future clinical behavior. In this type of study, it is not necessary to know the identity of each subject since what is being tried to discover are macro-type characteristics of a disease. Therefore, its uses and applications are rather limited.
Apparently this solution safeguards the privacy of online users and does not affect the business model for the sale of commercial guidelines and provision of behavioral data for large audiences. However, in the first reviews of the use of this new modality of consumer awareness, the individualization of the messages is pending. Cohort analysis does not initially make it possible to know enough about an individual to send them personalized messages. Is this the return of massive and widespread advertising? Time will tell.
The truth is that laws in areas as strategic as the European Union have begun to have global effects with initiatives such as Google and its campaign to say goodbye to cookies. The concern for privacy will continue to be a topic that will continue to be talked about not only in the use of browsers and the visit of web pages, but also in other areas of marketing such as market research, the collection of personal data for the purposes of advertising and the massification of cloud-based banking services.
Being attentive to these trends and investigating these transformations among Latin American consumers will allow your brand to anticipate the imminent transformations that will modify our relationship with everything we consume from our smartphones and computers. Do you have any questions or comments on this topic? Do you want to know how you can use these trends in favor of your brand? Write to us now and in a short time we will be answering you with what may be your next success story.
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