Device Co-op end-of-life FAQ

This document provides answers to frequently asked questions about the Adobe Experience Cloud Device Co-op end-of-life (EOL) plan. When this plan goes into effect, Adobe will provide an advanced notice in the Experience Cloud release notes and the Priority Product Update.

Device Co-op was a program that let participants work together to better identify consumers across digital touch points while ensuring the highest level of privacy and transparency.

FAQ

The following is a list of answers to frequently asked questions about the Device Co-op EOL plan.

Why is Device Co-op being deprecated?

The upcoming changes in the AdTech environment are expected to result in Device Co-op becoming an obsolete solution in the coming years. Device Co-op is comprised mostly of third-party cookies and Google’s announcement that they will be blocking third-party cookies on Google Chrome by 2022 will diminish the effectiveness of Device Co-op. Chrome has ~65% of the browser market share and other major browsers have already implemented blocking of third-party cookies. Once Chrome blocks third-party cookies, the majority of third-party cookies will be blocked and Device Co-op will be rendered obsolete.

Why is Adobe ending Device Co-op sign-ups now?

Sign-ups are ending to prevent risks of not meeting customer expectations due to the upcoming industry changes around third-party cookies. Device Co-op takes a few months to be prepared and another few months to extract value from the service. Any further sign-ups at this point could result in brands not experiencing the full value of Device Co-op.

On July 2022, Google announced the delay of third-party cookie deprecation on Chrome to 2024. Will this affect the Device Co-op EOL plans?

No, Adobe’s Device Co-op EOL plans will continue to remain the same and will not be extended.

Can new customers sign up?

Starting June 11, 2021, Adobe will no longer accept new sign-ups to Device Co-op.

Are existing contracts being renewed?

Starting June 11, 2021, Adobe will no longer renew Device Co-op contracts. If you wish to continue using Device Co-op services, you may continue to do so under the current license terms until the program ends.

What is the exact end date of the Device Co-op program?

The Device Co-op program will end in 2022. The specific timing and date depends on when Google starts to block third-party cookies. The decommissioning work is expected to start in September 2022.

Which applications will be affected by the Device Co-op end of life?

The following applications will be affected by the Device Co-op end of life procedures:

What options do I have as alternatives to Device Co-op?

Analytics

You can use the Analytics Cross-Device Analytics (CDA) feature as it supports both the Adobe Experience Platform Identity Service Private Graph and Field-Based Stitching.

Audience Manager

Audience Manager maintains integrations with third-party device graph partners including LiveRamp and Tapad, although you must establish commercial relationships with graph partners directly, in order to leverage Audience Manager. All customers are expected to update any co-op Profile Merge Rules to utilize any options other than Device Co-op.

Real-time Customer Data Platform

There are no plans to modify the current Audience Manager Data Management Platform (DMP). However, the deprecation of third-party cookies will likely create scale challenges for most DMP users. To help customers evolve their data management practices, Adobe is encouraging the reduction of dependencies on identifiers that will face restrictions in the coming year. Marketing teams must build first-party data strategies focused on durable identifiers that include personally identifiable information (PII), which can be solved for with Real-time Customer Data Platform (Real-time CDP).

Real-time CDP reduces dependencies on third-party cookies and device IDs by expanding the set of identifiers available for audience creation to include PII. Foundational to Real-time CDP is Real-time Customer Profile, which brings together person attribute data with behavioral data in real-time and allows marketers to create rich audience segments with patented data governance controls. Like Audience Manager, Real-time CDP powers insights and personalization use cases, but also generates more granular person-level insights and can activate audiences to a broader range of destinations spanning advertising technologies and marketing technologies, including paid media, social media, email, and customer systems.

Real-time CDP will also include access to Adobe Experience Platform Segment Match (Beta), which allows brands to expand their own first-party data sets through partnerships and achieve improved insights and personalization.

Target

There are currently no alternatives available for Target because Target provides a deterministic cross-device identity stitching capability known as mbox3rdPartyId, which functions similarly to Adobe’s Customer ID. This capability allows Target customers to merge profiles and activity participation across Target tests and personalization being done in inbound channels.

Adobe Advertising Cloud

Advertising Cloud customers will no longer be able to use Device Co-op for cross-device audience targeting and measurement. With Advertising Cloud, you will still be able to leverage Adobe’s Device Graph partnership with LiveRamp to continue to perform these functions to the extent of LiveRamp’s ability and scale. You must allow your campaigns that are using Device Co-op to end, and then either switch to the LiveRamp device graph provider, or no longer leverage people-based targeting.

What existing capabilities and implementations can help my preparation for a cookie-less future?

Your existing Visitor ID Service implementation powers Analytics CDA. If your existing declared ID is a hashed email, this can be used to power the following capabilities:

Will I get to keep my data from Device Co-op?

For Audience Manager and Advertising Cloud users, the data from Device Co-op will not be available to be transferred to third-party graphs. Device Co-op data will only be migrated for Analytics Ultimate users using CDA with Device Co-op switching to Field-Based Stitching. All other solutions will not have their data migrated.

Is it mandatory to adopt other features?

While adoption of other Adobe features is not mandatory, you should start the implementation of other features as soon as possible to allow time and appropriate coordination in advance of Device Co-op deprecation.

By when do I have to adopt alternative solutions if I choose to?

Adoption of other features is not mandatory. It is only recommended should you wish to continue addressing use-cases that were addressed by Device Co-op. If you choose to adopt other features, you must do so by 2022 (exact timing to be announced) before the Device Co-op program ends.

How long will the adoption take?

This will depend on the feature. For example, if an Analytics Ultimate customer using Cross-Device Analytics with Device Co-op needs to migrate to Real-time Private Device Graph or Field-Based Stitching, adoption will take some time.

What about the People metric?

With the deprecation of the Device Co-op, the People metric is no longer relevant. On May 8, 2023, we will remove the People metric. At that point, we will redirect its data to the Unique Visitor metric in Analytics to prevent projects, segments and calculated metrics from breaking.