If you’re a parent, grandparent, or favorite aunt or uncle, you’ve probably given your share of piggybacks. It’s an endearing request—the giggles and sheer joy are infectious and there’s something about hoisting a kid onto your shoulders and hearing them squeal with delight that makes the whole experience feel like pure bonding magic.

But if you’ve actually given a piggyback, you know they’re not really comfortable. There are the bony knees digging into your ribs. The unexpected chokehold when they “just need to hold on tighter.” And you never quite know how long you’ve committed to carrying this enthusiastic passenger.

That’s cookie piggybacking in a nutshell, except instead of your niece, it’s your marketing vendor. Instead of a five-minute trip around the backyard, it’s permanent. And instead of giggles, you get compliance violations.

Welcome to cookie governance in 2025, where a marketing tool becomes infrastructure risk, and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) are expected to understand what’s happening even if they don’t own the entire problem.

Cookie governance is the operational process of managing tracking technologies across your digital properties. It means knowing what cookies and pixels are active on your sites, who placed them, what data they collect, where that data goes, and whether you have the legal right to collect it.

This requires detecting and honoring Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals—browser-based opt-out requests that websites must respect—along with consent management system integration, real-time preference enforcement, and continuous monitoring, all of which are infrastructure decisions that require architecture, testing, and ongoing maintenance.

Cookie governance often makes its way to CTOs because it requires infrastructure decisions that demand both technical expertise and executive authority. That includes:

  • Architecture decisions: Detecting and honoring GPC signals, consent management system integration, real-time preference enforcement
  • Security assessments: Evaluating whether marketing tools introduce vulnerabilities, determining which vendors get access
  • Vendor management: Implementing scanning protocols to detect unauthorized tracking, evaluating security implications of third-party tools (this likely includes partner with marketing teams)
  • Cross-functional trade-offs: Balancing marketing capabilities against security requirements and compliance obligations

These aren’t tasks you can delegate down. They require executive-level technical judgment and cross-functional authority.

It’s important to note that cookie governance might not always officially be on a CTO’s plate—legal, privacy, or marketing might have it instead. But even in situations when cookie governance formally sits with legal, privacy, or marketing operations, the infrastructure decisions and technical remediation require CTO involvement. Understanding why privacy compliance increasingly falls to technical leaders helps contextualize this shift.

Regulators are enforcing aggressively. California’s Privacy Protection Agency fined Tractor Supply Company $1.35 million in September 2025—the most recent action to date. France’s CNIL hit Shein with €150 million for placing cookies after users opted out. Seven states formed an enforcement consortium specifically targeting cookie compliance.

Cybersecurity and data protection are now top priorities for 51% of executives. When cookie compliance fails, it surfaces in M&A due diligence, regulatory inquiries, and board-level conversations about privacy positioning—and boards expect CTOs to have answers.

Cookie governance involves familiar CTO concerns—vendor risk, security vulnerabilities, operational control—but in a domain where traditional IT governance often doesn’t extend. Marketing operates its own tech stack, agencies get direct access to systems, and clear ownership rarely exists. Understanding where cookie governance typically breaks down helps CTOs know what to look for and where to establish controls.

Challenge #1: No one owns the pixels

Cookie governance requires someone to be accountable for what tracking technologies exist on your properties, who placed them, and whether they comply with regulations. 

But in many organizations, that person doesn’t exist. No one is designated as responsible for pixels on the site. Marketing and IT don’t coordinate on tracking additions. Legal gets involved only after deployment, if at all.

That means pixels collecting data sans contracts in place, or tracking technologies sharing data with third parties you never approved. In response to this, companies typically end up in one of two extremes: a conservative lockdown where everything requires opt-in and all pixels are blocked by default, or the Wild West where no one really knows what’s happening. The reality for most organizations is the Wild West—tracking runs unchecked because no one has clear authority to change it. 

Neither approach is strategic. 

Why it matters to CTOs: Without clear ownership, you can’t answer basic questions from auditors, regulators, or board members:

  • Who can place pixels on our sites?
  • What’s our approval process?
  • When did we last audit what’s running?
  • How do we know we’re compliant?

Challenge #2: Piggybacking creates liability blind spots

Cookie governance requires knowing what’s actually running on your sites. But vendors don’t just place the pixels you approved—they place additional tracking for their own purposes. Your approved vendor adds their sub-processors’ tags. Those sub-processors collect data and use it for their other clients.

That happens because your vendors might not be contractually required to disclose every pixel they place or every sub-processor they use, and many organizations don’t scan regularly to detect what’s actually running. Understanding fourth-party cookie risks is essential for comprehensive vendor risk assessment.

Why it matters to CTOs: You’re responsible for what your vendors’ vendors do, even when you don’t know those vendors exist. Malware can enter through unvetted third-party tags. Vendors may violate regulations using your customer data. Data collection happens for purposes you never authorized. According to compliance research, 58% of teams identify gauging vendor responsiveness as their biggest challenge in managing third-party risk—and with piggybacking, you’re not even aware you need to be asking the questions.

Challenge #3: Agency access without oversight

For companies that work with marketing agencies, cookie governance faces an additional complication: agencies typically get direct access to tag containers or can place pixels on sites without IT involvement. This creates a parallel tracking infrastructure that operates outside your normal governance processes.

The agency might be authorized to place pixels, but questions may go unanswered: Who owns the contract with each pixel vendor? Who ensures ongoing compliance? Who offboards pixels when campaigns end or they’re no longer needed?

A common scenario: a company hires a marketing agency for a campaign and grants tag manager access during onboarding. The agency places pixels for campaign measurement, attribution, and optimization. However, they change tags throughout the campaign without notifying anyone. When the campaign ends, agency access and tags remain active. Six months later, a routine scan uncovers unauthorized tracking that’s been running the entire time.  

And while it was unclear who was responsible for handling those pixels, the company is ultimately liable, even though the agency was managing the implementation.”

Why it matters to CTOs: The fundamental problem is accountability: you’re responsible for the consequences without having had control over the decisions.

When agencies have direct access to your infrastructure, you’re liable for tracking you didn’t authorize—but you can’t demonstrate to regulators or auditors what controls were in place because marketing granted access outside your processes. The security vulnerabilities from unvetted third-party code also become an incident response problem. Privacy operations services can help establish the oversight processes that prevent these scenarios.

Cookie governance doesn’t require a massive compliance overhaul. It requires treating tracking technologies with the same operational rigor you already apply to other infrastructure risks. Here’s what that looks like in practice.

Establish clear ownership

The first step is designating someone who’s accountable for what tracking runs on your properties. This doesn’t mean CTOs need to personally manage every pixel—it means ensuring someone in your organization is actively managing cookie governance: running scans, reviewing vendor contracts, maintaining the pixel inventory, and enforcing the approval process.

For many organizations, this responsibility sits at the intersection of IT, legal, and marketing. The owner needs technical literacy to understand implementation requirements and enough authority to enforce policies across departments. Privacy program development can help establish these ownership structures. Document who owns this in writing, define their decision rights, and make sure marketing, IT, and legal all understand the reporting structure.

Implement regular scanning

You can’t manage what you can’t see. Deploy cookie scanning tools that run monthly (for large companies or those with active agency relationships) or quarterly (for smaller companies with stable vendor relationships). The scan should identify every tracking technology on your sites, where it came from, what data it collects, and whether you authorized it. Determining the right scanning frequency depends on your organization’s risk profile and vendor relationships.

When scans reveal unauthorized pixels—and they will—investigate the source. Was it a vendor piggybacking? An agency placing tags without approval? A marketing tool that auto-updated? Understanding how unauthorized tracking gets added helps you prevent it from happening again.

Lock down vendor contracts

Update your vendor agreements to include cookie governance requirements. Vendors must disclose any additional pixels they place, get approval before adding new tracking, and notify of changes to their sub-processors.

For vendors already under contract, send an addendum. For new vendors, build these terms into your standard agreement. Contracts need to be clear on audit provisions and what data is being used for, which might trigger additional obligations. Identifying red flags in vendor privacy agreements can help strengthen your contracts.  

Control agency access

If you work with marketing agencies, establish a formal access management process as part of a broader cookie/digital governance process. Many companies use tag containers like Google Tag Manager, which allows agencies to add or remove pixels at any time without notifying anyone. This is helpful for managing pixels and also requires regular review.

Make sure you establish a process that requires agencies to:

  • Document what and when they’re adding and removing
  • Get approval for new pixels based on your company’s policies
  • Ensure proper contracts are in place with each pixel vendor (friendly reminder these are required under many state privacy laws
  • Correctly categorize tracking technologies in your cookie consent management platform

Partner with Red Clover Advisors

Red Clover Advisors helps CTOs and technology leaders build sustainable cookie governance frameworks that work at scale. We assess your current infrastructure, identify gaps in vendor oversight and agency access controls, create comprehensive cookie governance programs, including policies, processes, and procedures as well as role based training to marketing teams. 

Not sure where to start? Check out our resources:

Schedule a consultation to discuss how we can help you build a framework that reduces risk, increases visibility, and maintains compliance without slowing down your business.

Downloadable Resource

A Comprehensive Guide to Cookie Governance

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