Cookie已死，看Facebook、Google、Apple如何追踪用户

你访问过的网站会写入一些 Cookies 到你的浏览器里，这些 Cookies 会被一些广告公司用来售卖更精准的广告。但是基于 cookies 不能在 PC 浏览器和移动 App 之间共享，它在移动设备上的关联性已经非常有限。目前包括 Facebook 、 Google 、 Apple 在内的科技厂商都在寻求别的技术取得突破。

以下是译文：

Medialets 首席执行官 Eric Litman 表示： “ 即将死去的 cookie 可以追溯到 2007 年推出的 iPhone 。苹果最初限制第三方 cookie 在 iPhone 上使用，因为它认为广告商能够获得太多的个人信息 ” 。现在，第三方 cookie 还在谷歌的 Chrome 浏览器和 Android 操作系统上运行，但它们不会有效地在其他公司生产的智能手机和平板电脑上运行。另外，但是基于 cookies 不能在 PC 浏览器和移动 App 之间共享，它在移动设备上的关联性已经非常有限。

下面介绍的是这几大科技玩家如何用他们自主研发的追踪技术取代 cookie 。

Facebook

Facebook ，实际上已经从它 13 亿 用户 那里积累了数以亿计的个人元 数据 ，包括鞋码的大小、头发的颜色，在哪里上学等。

社交网络依靠 SSO （单点登录）来跟踪用户的行为。 SSO 允许你在第三方网站和 App 上使用你的 Facebook 证书。当你开始这样做时， Facebook 便开始监视、追踪、记录你的目标信息。在某种程度上，你也许早已注意到那些出现在 Facebook 新闻提要上由数据驱动的广告。

Facebook 的应用， WhatsApp 和 Instagram ，以及公司的内部开发的 App 像 Messenger 和 Paper 提高数据流，但现在，这些 App 并不主打广告。

但这种方法只能在 Facebook 生态系统凑效。该公司正寻求突破，最近在纽约的 Advertising Week 上 Facebook 公布了一个新版本的 Atlas 广告平台（去年 Facebook 从微软收购的）。新平台是 Facebook 试图在现有生态系统外提供广告服务的一次尝试。

Google

和 Facebook 一样，谷歌也在很大程度上也依赖于其 SSO 。你登录你的谷歌账户都会将你和整个谷歌网络绑定。

当然，谷歌拥有 Android 手机操作系统，它会给每个用户分配一个 Google Ad ID 。许多类似 AdSense 、 AdMob 及 DoubleClick 的谷歌广告产品都会利用到你设备的广告标识符。连同你访问 YouTube ， Gmail ， Voice 和搜索， Google 可以编制一个关于你数字历史的档案。实际上他们也是这么做的，你访问的网站等于间接告诉谷歌很多信息，无论你使用什么设备，他们都会获得你的信息。

Apple

至于苹果，其跟踪技术主要集中于两件事：你的 Email 地址，这将你绑定到任何 iOS 或 OS X 苹果设备上，其次是你的 iTunes 账户，使苹果知道你的信用卡数据，这将让你和苹果生态系统绑定的更紧。

你的登录 ID 与苹果的 “ 广告商标示符 ” 或 IDFA 是绑定在一起的。这实际上是给每个购买和使用 iOS 设备用户分配的一个独一无二的字符串。因此，当运行在苹果的广告网络上时，他们就能够决定谁将接收到这个广告，并且能够建立潜在的连接，回传你在苹果系统上所做的一切。

修复还是退出？

如果这还不够，许多大广告商也从 LiveRamp 和 Experian 等第三方那里获取极其详细的数据。例如 LiveRamp ，可以通过一个电子邮件地址提供客户关于每天网上交易的大量数据。这些公司甚至可以判断一个广告是否导致了在店铺交易的发生。

Google 、 Apple 以及 Microsoft 作为占据主导地位的操作系统供应商，可以很容易地以一个统一的、不涉及隐私的方式，解决这个跨设备的用户 ID 问题，如果他们想， Litman 如是说。 IDFA 和谷歌 AdID 正在朝着正确的方向前进，并希望苹果和谷歌继续改善，并创建一个每个人都支持的标准。 ”

至关重要的一点，不管你是使用 iOS 和 Android 设备，你可以关掉大部分的跟踪机制 —— 两个操作系统的设置菜单可以帮助你做到这一点。

英语原文：

The cookie is dead. Here’s how Facebook, Google, and Apple are tracking you now

The lifespan of the tracking cookie is about to expire. With the rapid emergence of mobile devices, the big three — Facebook, Google, and Apple — have turned to new and more potent methods for advertisers to keep track of you across multiple devices.

The impending death of the cookie can be traced to the launch of the iPhone in 2007. Apple initially restricted third-party cookies in iPhones because it believed advertisers would be able to garner too much personal information as they tracked you across websites, according to Medialets chief executive Eric Litman. Third-party cookies still work on Google’s Chrome browser and the Android OS, but they don’t function effectively on a large number of smartphones and tablets produced by other companies. Also, because cookies are not shared between the browser and apps on the same device, they have very limited relevance on mobile devices.

Here’s how each of the big mobile players is trying to replace the cookie with its own brand of tracking.

Facebook
For Menlo Park, Calif.-based Facebook, it all comes down to the billions of metric tons of highly personal metadata the company has amassed from its 1.3 billion users, such as shoe size, hair color, where your grandmother is buried, and where you went to school, for example.

The social network relies on its SSO (Single Sign-On) to follow the movement of users. SSO allows you to use your Facebook credentials on third-party websites and apps. When you do this, Facebook is watching, following, and cataloging your destination points. This data drives, to a degree, what ads turn up on your Facebook news feed. Maybe you’ve noticed.

Facebook-owned apps, WhatsApp and Instagram, along with the company’s internally developed apps like Messenger and Paper, increase the data flow, though for now, these apps don’t yet feature ads.

But this method only works within Facebook’s ecosystem. The company is looking to expand and recently unveiled a new version of the Atlas ad platform (which Facebook acquired from Microsoft last year) at Advertising Week in New York. The new platform is Facebook’s attempt to serve ads outside its existing ecosystem, on both desktop and mobile.

Google
Like its Facebook friends just down the freeway, Google also relies heavily on its SSO. Logging into any of your Google accounts ties you to the entire Google network, which is massive.

And then of course, Google has its Android mobile operating system, which assigns each user a Google Ad ID. Many of Google’s ad products — AdSense, AdMob, and DoubleClick — pull in your device’s ad identifier. Together with the information it already has from its many web properties, including YouTube, Gmail, Voice, and Search, the company can compile a dossier, as it were, of your digital history. The websites you visit tell Google plenty, and the information comes in handy no matter what device you’re using.

Apple
As for Apple, its tracking techniques are focused primarily on two things: your email address, which ties you to all of Apple’s services running on any iOS or OS X device, and your iTunes account, which gives Apple your credit card data and ties you most closely to its ecosystem.

Your login identity is tied to your Apple “identifier for advertisers,” or IDFA. It’s a unique string of characters assigned to every user buying and using an iOS device. So when ads run on Apple’s advertising network iAd for example, Apple is able to determine who’s receiving the ad, and potentially to connect that back to everything that person did elsewhere in Apple’s system.

Fix it, or opt out

If that’s not enough, many big advertisers also rely on extremely detailed data from third parties like LiveRamp and Experian. LiveRamp, for instance, can deliver clients huge volumes of data about everyday online transactions with only a single email address. And these companies can tell whether an ad displayed to an online user led to a purchase at a store.

“Google, Apple, and Microsoft, as the dominant operating system vendors, could easily fix this problem of cross-device user identification for advertising in a consistent, privacy-friendly way if they wanted to,” Litman said. “IDFA and Google AdID are steps in the right direction, and hopefully Apple and Google will continue to improve them and and create a standard that everyone can support.”

But it’s also crucial to remember that, whether you’re using an iOS or Android device, you are able to turn off most of the tracking mechanisms — the settings menus of both operating systems help you do this.

via ： CSDN