ShareASale is prepared for the release of Chrome 80, are you?
On February 4, Google will release an update to its Chrome browser. In this update, Chrome will limit cross-site cookies to HTTPS connections. To ensure continuous tracking during this change, ShareASale is upgrading security standards and making relevant attribute changes to cookies.
In anticipation of this release, ShareASale will be automatically upgrading all tracking links to HTTPS. For most users, these changes will either have no effect or will improve tracking. SSL Certification on e-commerce sites supporting HTTPS linking protocols are industry standard and automatically upgrading outstanding HTTP links to HTTPS will improve landing page load times and decrease redirect issues.
While HTTPS publisher linking has been the default linking format for publishers within the ShareASale platform for some time, we do recommend that publishers with legacy content review and update their links to HTTPS. Doing so will reduce lag and load times during redirect, improving user experience. For merchants, having an SSL certificate has been standard with 99% of e-commerce and 80% of all sites having an SSL certificate in 2019 – if your site does not have an SSL certificate, we recommend contacting your web host to upgrade your site.
Alongside the release of Chrome 80, Google has recently announced plans to completely phase out third-party cookies over a two year period. This announcement shows Google following in the footsteps of Safari and Firefox, however, a welcome difference is the staggered approach that allows for suitable replacement technologies to be found and agreed upon – good news for data-light tracking technology providers and a safeguarding of revenues for publishers (and of course Google). Undoubtedly this will open up further issues and opportunities, something ShareASale will continue to monitor very closely.
If you have any concerns about the upcoming release of Chrome 80, please contact us at ShareASale@ShareASale.com. ShareASale recommends reading the Chromium blog and using Google’s recommended tools to ensure your sites remain compliant outside of ShareASale’s tracking and subresources.
