The history of innovation follows a familiar pattern: new technology comes along that improves our quality of life, time reveals its unintended consequences, and innovators jump in to create something even better. Take the automobile, for instance. Cars revolutionized our lives, but as time marched on, we realized the detrimental side effects of fossil fuels and the resulting demand for a more renewable alternative paved the way for the Prius, Tesla, and other zero-emission cars. 
The same is happening in ad measurement: what once was commonplace is now concerning, with 1:1 tracking tactics like third-party cookies and hashed emails that were the accepted industry standard now under fire for their privacy risks.
And the major players are responding with decisions that could make third-party cookies for ad tracking obsolete. Firefox and Safari already block cookies, and Google Chrome, which holds 65% of global browser market share, will ban third-party cookies in the near future. Not to mention, widely used cookie replacements like email-based identifiers are also not supported by a growing number of platforms. Apple, for instance, no longer allows mobile apps from sharing any user-provided data, including emails, with third parties for advertising or measurement purposes. 
Just as car companies are committing to zero emission vehicles in the coming years, innovative ad-tech platforms must commit to zero cookies, finding a better way to resolve the trade-off between addressibilty and privacy. 
At Upwave, we’re innovating beyond the problematic industry standard by offering cohort-level measurement, a privacy-safe and future-proof alternative to 1:1 identifiers. Cohort-level measurement provides brands with cross-channel lift and targeting accuracy analytics, without sacrificing any individual consumer’s privacy. 
It is no wonder, then, that Upwave is the only brand measurement company participating in the World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, an international group of tech and advertising leaders which is actively consulting with Google on their privacy moves. Upwave Director of Engineering George London is engaged in these critical discussions with the aim of protecting consumer privacy in browser-based advertising. 
This commitment to privacy-safe measurement is why forward-thinking industry pioneers like Kargo, the leader in creating mobile advertising experiences for major brands and publishers like CBSi, Hearst, Discovery, NBCU, choose Upwave as their premier cookieless measurement partner. 
“Kargo has always been an editorial-first partner, focused on the value that safe, premium content environments provide for brands,” says Billie Hirsh, VP Marketing at Kargo. “This focus extends into our investment of innovative, privacy compliant solutions.”  
Kargo’s proprietary cookieless technologies, for instance, help advertisers leverage mobile experiences that aren’t driven by intrusive tracking, but are instead focused on unique creative formats employing contextual targeting. By breaking down key elements of the content being consumed—including metrics like readability, sentiment, topic, and demographics—Kargo helps its partners safely and effectively reach mobile consumers that are “unreachable” with third party cookies. 
“When it comes time to measure performance of our mobile brand experiences, we are excited to partner with Upwave,” adds Hirsh. “They share our commitment to helping brands achieve better business outcomes without sacrificing privacy, and are leading the way in privacy-safe campaign measurement.” 
As traditional tracking tactics like third-party cookies continue to raise concerns, brands and their media partners will have to decide: will we wait on the sidelines or will we find a better, future-proof alternative? 
Learn more about Upwave and Kargo’s investment in the future of privacy safe measurement with cohorts in AW360 here!
At Upwave, we’re proud to steer the industry toward a more privacy-safe future alongside innovative partners like Kargo. For a closer look at how we’re raising the bar in cookieless campaign measurement, get in touch to schedule a demo of the Upwave brand analytics platform today.