Cookie

A cookie is small text data that web servers store in browsers. Cookies maintain login sessions, shopping carts, user preferences, and analytics - foundational web technology.

In QR code marketing, cookies track post-scan behavior. Setting a cookie when users access a landing page via QR code enables tracking of page views, time on site, and conversions. Combined with UTM parameters, cookies enable attribution analysis - identifying which QR code led to a purchase.

However, the cookie landscape is shifting dramatically. GDPR and similar regulations require user consent for cookie tracking. Safari's ITP blocks third-party cookies by default. Chrome reversed course in July 2024, dropping its plan to remove them and keeping its existing user-choice approach. Google reiterated that user-choice stance in October 2025 and, at the same time, announced it would retire much of the Privacy Sandbox replacement stack, including Topics and Protected Audience. Measurement therefore cannot be designed on the assumption that a standardized API will take over from cookies - the practical requirement is a collection path on your own side that does not depend on how the browser is configured.

QR code analytics are migrating to cookie-independent methods: server-side log analysis, first-party data, and unique URL parameters per QR code. Understanding cookie limitations and designing privacy-respecting measurement is now a prerequisite for QR code marketing.