How do advertisers, agencies, and consumers navigate the blooming world of identity solutions? And, which of these meet regulatory and consumer privacy requirements? Are they all created equal from a privacy perspective?…
These are a few of the questions that require an overseeing body to provide transparency regarding the largest change in ad tech since its inception. The Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media (PRAM) is building a robust set of standards and documentation for the post-privacy world. If you access their work in progress documentation, you quickly get the sense of its target audience – ad tech players including advertisers. It is not for consumers. So who is helping consumers understand their digital privacy? Seemingly no one outside of Apple. Why? It is not in ad tech’s best interests to push for privacy and transparency.
The existing self-governing bodies like IAB, who launched in 1996, didn’t push for consumer privacy until regulatory changes like GDPR and technology changes like Apple’s ITP pushed the industry forward. IAB’s focus on ad tech standardization falls on the wayside when the problem is not a tech-spec but consumers’ privacy and identity.
Apple leads the industry on consumer-friendly privacy communication and built-in technology features. I push PRAM and IAB to find their consumer angle and borrow from Apple’s playbook. I also recommend advertisers play up their consumer privacy benefits. Consider it part of corporate social responsibility.
Google’s privacy sandbox is also on the right path with consumer accessibility. Including the latest hints towards an Apple-like mobile privacy approach.
Notes
Google, The Trade Desk, Neustar, Epsilon, Verizon Media, LiveRamp are building or deploying identity solutions that don’t rely on 3P cookies. Do consumers understand what is happening to their privacy on the open web? No. Perhaps we are not truly solving the underlying privacy issue by simply removing cookies.