Join us Dec. 1-3 in Nashville for the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
This article is a WTF explainer, in which we break down media and marketing’s most confusing terms. More from the series →
Piggyback rides can be fun for children. For website operators, not so much.
Piggybacking — also known as cookie-syncing — is how an ad tech firm can drop a third-party cookie on a website’s visitors without being granted access by the website via another ad tech firm that the website has granted access, as covered in the explainer skit above.
An issue with this third-party tracking daisy-chain is that it makes it difficult for website operators to rein in outside companies’ abilities to collect information about their audiences, which risks putting the operators in privacy regulators’ crosshairs.
More in Marketing
D+ Research: Marketers express revenue optimism for 2026 holiday season despite economic pressures
Marketers expect their 2026 holiday revenue to increase 1% to 31% or more in comparison to their 2025 holiday revenue.
Mattel brings Barbie, Hot Wheels to TikTok Shop
Mattel’s TikTok Shop store debuts this week with roughly 20 products across Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price and Monster High properties.
Future of Marketing Briefing: Inside Guinness’ go-slow approach to creators
The case for doing less with creators, according to Guinness