Google is in the early stages of developing its own alternative to cookies, which have a few limitations when it comes to tracking users. The company is working on universal IDs, which will track users from device to device. Whereas cookies can be erased and sometimes lead to ineffective ad targeting, universal IDs would provide more accurate user data. But it could also create a Google-owned monopoly of data. However, Google isn’t the only company working on cookie alternatives. 

“Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo or any Internet company with a silo of consumer data could build its own user ID,” Adweek writes, “increasing the complexity of online advertising.”

Concerns within the industry about these companies each creating their own user IDs is that effective marketing could require “connecting a trail of discordant IDs to target consumers jumping from Google to Facebook to their iPhones.”

This would make it especially difficult for the trading desk Xaxis, which is already preparing for the death of cookies, Adweek says. By creating its own statistical ID, advertisers could target users by device and other anonymous characteristics.

“The advertisers in concert with publishers need to take a much more proactive role in terms of getting this situation solved,” a tech insider told Adweek. “They can’t leave it to Google.”

But Google insists that whatever results from its developments, users will be able to opt out.