As privacy has become a more pressing issue, web browsers have started to limit or remove access to certain types of cookies — the mechanism commonly used to track visitors.
There are two types of cookie:
First-party
Those set against the website's own domain, which cannot be used outside out it.
Third-party
Those set against another vendor's domain (e.g Google) to allow tracking across multiple sites.
Fresh Relevance uses first-party cookies, which are typically considered less risky when it comes to privacy concerns, because they are limited to just that one website. This means we avoid breaking the new measures being imposed.
Common browser status updates
Here's the current status for the most common browsers and how it affects Fresh Relevance:
Chrome
Currently has begun to block third-party cookies, as of 2024.
This will not affect Fresh Relevance as we use first-party cookies, which are not going to be blocked.
Firefox
Currently blocks third-party cookies.
This does not affect Fresh Relevance as we use first-party cookies.
Edge
Currently blocks third-party cookies.
This does not affect Fresh Relevance as we use first-party cookies.
Safari
Currently blocks third-party cookies.
This does not affect Fresh Relevance as we use first-party cookies.
Currently limits all first-party cookies to a maximum lifespan of 7 days.
Since January 2020, Fresh Relevance has been storing the device ID that is found in our cookie in the browser's localStorage. This doesn't currently have the same time limit imposed. If the script detects a missing cookie but finds a device ID in localStorage it will recreate the cookie using the ID to allow continued identification.