With the digital world buzzing about internet privacy upgrades (looking at you, Google Privacy Sandbox), you might be wondering what it means for services like referral programs that track your every click. Rewardful has been keeping a close eye on these developments, and we're working hard to make sure that your referral program won't miss a beat.

Cookies aren't quite as delicious in the digital realm as they are in the real world, but they sure are essential for a smooth web experience. They're how your browser maintains information about you as you move from page to page, and there are two types we need to be aware of: first-party cookies and third-party cookies.

First-party cookies are the good guys - created by and for whichever website you're currently viewing. They remember logins, what you dropped in your cart, and how you like your site settings, and they’re here to make your life easier.

Third-party cookies are the ones that you've been warned about. They're set and read by domains other than the one you're visiting, usually by advertisers trying to keep tabs on your surfing habits to throw more ads your way. These guys are on the privacy hit list and are getting booted out of the party.

Rewardful uses first-party cookies for referral tracking. When someone follows an affiliate link to your website, our tracking script sets a first party cookie with information related to the referral so that it can be retrieved later when it's needed. That means that if the visitor leaves your site and comes back later to sign up, we'll still have a record of how they were referred so that we can still make sure that your affiliate gets credit for the customer.

Over the past few years, the makers of some of the most popular browser software on the internet including Apple and Mozilla have been gradually tightening the screws on third-party cookies, and Google's new Privacy Sandbox initiative promises to deprecate their use entirely in Chrome-based browsers before the end of 2024.

But here's the good news: since Rewardful uses first-party cookies placed on your domain, your affiliate links will continue to work just like they always have. Tracking and attribution have been and will continue to be unaffected by these changes.

First-party cookies have been baked into Rewardful (pun intended) from the beginning, but we understand that it's not the final word. The web privacy landscape will continue to be a moving target, and the war on cookies will continue. We'll be keeping our eyes and ears open to monitor new developments and respond to them so that Rewardful continues to reliably track referrals for our merchants and their affiliates.