Privacy & Identity: Why It Matters

Why it matters — According to a joint study by TripleLift and AdAge, only 69% of marketers have implemented solutions that solve for privacy and identity. This is partly due to a lack of knowledge of which solutions exist and apply to their use cases. With 2024 approaching, buyers must start laying the groundwork and discover solutions that fit their media execution needs. The Prepper Playbook for Advertisers provides some general guidelines and battle cards to kickstart the conversation.

Why it matters — The advertising industry has a massive stake in the deprecation of third-party cookies, and unfortunately, there's no silver bullet. While the alternatives offer the media industry attractive solutions, we need to understand the core design decision of each proposal to separate the essential statement of each proposal from the technical consequences of its thesis. In this piece, we look at the design decisions and how they balance protecting user privacy while preserving the value of personalized advertising.

Why it matters — Identity (ID) Solutions are the hottest topic in advertising in response to third-party cookie deprecation and the reduced availability of IDFA. This overview explains the what, why, and how, including first-party vs. cross-domain ID solutions, the data they use, and the targeting and measurement options they enable for marketers.

Why it matters — Addressability is in for a significant change with the deprecation of third-party cookies. As a result, advertisers must understand their current addressability options and build their advertising plans to account for a portfolio of solutions.

Why it matters — Colorado's Governor signed into law the "Colorado Privacy Act" (CPA), which, among other things, requires companies to give consumers a universal mechanism to opt-out of targeted advertising, sales of data, and more with just one click. However, publishers, marketers, and vendors are concerned that the requirements may conflict with other state's laws and existing standards. In other words, each law and guideline means a new build for various technical standards even though industry opt-outs already exist with new standards coming. Over the next few years, we'll see confusion while the industry aligns policies, practices, and technical standards to meet various state and global requirements. Without alignment, it's nearly impossible for a multi-sided marketplace of various players to collect, share, and use data in different ways to work together.

Why it matters — The race for tech giants to earn consumer trust is heating up as regulators worldwide create laws to protect consumers' data online. Tech giants are signaling their desire to leverage their first-party relationships with consumers. Consumers, meanwhile, are choosing options that decrease the effectiveness of attribution-led advertising. This combination will force the industry in a new direction with massive change. There will be new winners and losers. Publishers and advertisers that adopt new ways of delivering ads to audiences and measuring results in a privacy-centric manner with ad tech partners will survive this shift and see outsized gains.