Editor’s Note: This research was supported by Google as part of the Digital News Initiative.
The number of third-party cookies on European news sites has dropped by 22% since the introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Over 200 news sites were studied in April and July – before and after the introduction of GDPR – across seven EU countries. UK news sites, which had the most cookies per page in April, had 45% fewer by July; German news sites exhibited the smallest change with 6% fewer cookies.
Source: Libert, T., Graves, L., & Nielsen, R., Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.