I have a bit of a trouble understanding cookies used by Google Analytics
. I understand that the tracking code included in the website collects certain information about page hits, the duration of the visit, cookies of the first-party domain etc. It then attaches all of this information into the querystring parameters of a gif
pixel request, and sends it to the Google Analytics
servers. However, what I do not understand is that how can Google Analytics
make any sense of these first-party cookies since the pixel is a request to www.google-analytics.com
, a third-party server.
So, even though the tracking code itself can be inside the publisher's code, and be executed as the first-party, and therefore allow Google Analytics to have access to the first-party cookies, but when these cookies eventually reach the GA servers, these servers cannot really read the cookies, can they? One explanation for this could be that once the first-party cookies are shared with GA
, then regardless of where these cookies are sent (and regardless of the fact that that particular pixel is setting up a third-party cookie inside the browser because of it being a request to www.google-analytics.com
), the GA
servers are able to have a unique id corresponding to that user (based on the first-party cookie id), and thus maintain a record for that user on subsequent requests. Is this understanding correct?
Could anyone please help clarify this. Thank you.