Key takeaways

• Don’t plan around a single cut-off date; engineer for variability.
• Make consent/measurement observable by region, network, device.
• Tie trust metrics to conversion, churn, and sales cycle.

Not very long ago, the internet was full of discussions about what will happen to famous (and often annoying) website cookies. Although big companies like Google try to adopt new approaches, and even prevent third parties from gathering cookies, this topic is still processing. 

In fact, browsers still allow third-party cookies for now, but the message for businesses is the same: long-term growth depends on first-party data that you can control, measure, and use consistently. But for CIOs, the real question is not “Will cookies disappear?” but “How do we build a reliable, compliant first-party data system that works no matter what browsers or ad tech decide next?”

Residential proxy for consent-mode behavior audits

A first-party data program depends on how accurately consent and tags work. Office-based lab tests won’t show the full picture — you need to see how things behave in the real world, across different countries, networks, and devices. That’s where residential proxy services come in as a practical tool for CIOs and analytics teams. By routing test traffic through real household connections in specific cities, you can check how consent banners appear, how choices flow through client- and server-side tags, and whether network conditions create edge cases. The goal here is not to hide traffic, but to get full coverage.

Start by making a simple plan that lists each place and the kind of internet. For each one, open a new browser using a residential proxy, which makes it look like you are on home internet in another city. Write down how fast the banner shows, which choices you can see, what the default choice is, and what signals are sent after each click. If someone says yes, check that only the allowed signals reach your servers and that the data format matches your plan. If someone says no, make sure tracking slows down smoothly, no IDs are created, and any guessed numbers are clearly marked. Do the same tests on slow mobile internet, because delays can mix up the order of things.

Next, check your servers from start to finish. Use the proxy again to send test messages from different places and make sure your front server uses the right rules for each location, sends data only for the right reasons, and removes extra details you do not want. Compare what your test tool sent with what shows up in your data store to make sure nothing extra was added. Run the test again with blockers turned on. Even if the page scripts do not load, your servers should still record the most important actions in a safe, permission-based way.

A residential proxy won’t replace governance, but it makes your audits realistic, repeatable, and defensible across regions and networks.

Building a durable first-party data backbone

Once consent and tagging behave predictably, the next leap is operational, unifying identity, telemetry, and activation around a shared contract. Leadership teams are already prioritizing this. In 2025 research, 80 percent of leaders planned to increase spending on new technology, and most also intended to boost investment in customer data and analytics. These are not abstract trends, they are signals that first-party data programs are moving from pilots to the core of digital operations.

Measurement when the ground keeps moving

Although third-party cookies are still part of our digital environment, their usage has become less reliable — at least, that’s the general impression. Earlier, one of the executives in the industry mentioned: “We have made the decision to maintain our current approach to offering users third-party cookie choice in Chrome.”

So, to phrase this as a message for CIOs: there is no need to plan around one final shutdown date. Instead, the better approach is to prepare for change. Why collect data when people don’t give their consent? Otherwise, it’s always beneficial to gather information about users’ digital roadmap.