Data Privacy Implications for Online Advertisers

When it comes to online Marketing; you cannot accomplish any objectives without Data.

Every marketer knows the importance of consumer data and consumer privacy. Digital marketers are trying harder to adapt to new data privacy regulations and restrictions across all their social platforms, websites, and apps. User privacy is also a concern, but the focus has significantly  shifted to protecting users and information over the past few years.

Big changes are happening to big data, and there is more to come…

In the following section, we have tried to outline some notable changes in consumer data privacy and how they affect marketing efforts today.

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Apple is shifting the Goalposts

Apple was one of the first tech giants to respond to the privacy concern of its users. As a result, it became the first browser to limit access to third-party cookies, in June last year, it announced that Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) will only come to the company’s mail app on iOS 15, iPad OS 15, and Mac OS-enabled devices. The initiative aimed to prevent senders from utilizing invisible pixels to collect information about the user.

End of the third-party cookies’ era

Google has announced that the cookie monster will eat up all the cookies from the websites a few months from now. Until now, marketers were heavily relying on third-party cookies. As a result, it is believed that AdTech shall suffer catastrophic effects for the same. As a result, some German publishers will fight in the European courts for the same Alternatively, Google is coming up with alternatives such as Topics to help recoup the market. For now, we can just wait and watch.

There is still hope

There is no need to lose hope at this point. When one door is closed, another opens, and marketers must strengthen their zero-party and first-party data to get a robust based of data. As of now, these two types of data will be at the center stage. They are the gold standard of data and this brings us to think that marketers need to focus their efforts on email and other channels powered by zero and first-party data.

Time to prepare for a cookie-less Future

Marketers must understand the current data privacy trends irrespective of whether they deal with the data every day or not. Marketers must stay:

• Compliant: Companies and brands must understand the latest laws and policies, and their application while collecting data.
• Strengthen their first-party data: We already mentioned earlier; marketers must focus on what they have in their hands.
• Be responsible and transparent: Marketers must be fair and transparent. They should create a clear data privacy plan.
• Be creative and Flexible: There is still hope, and marketers must find new ways to gather insights. For example, you can try geo-based experiments rather than cookie-based ones. Use first-party tagging and optimize first-party data collection and go for contextual targeting.
• Marketing is an evolving field and if you want to succeed here, you must be prepared to respond to change.

A deep understanding of policies is a must while obtaining consent for data collection, updating the data, maintaining transparency, and remaining responsible with user data. You can do this in-house with the help of some data privacy tools that help.

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Check them out here:

1. OneTrust

• Headquartered in Atlanta.
• Offers website compliance scanning, cookie management, publisher, and mobile app compliance features.
• The platform also allows for customizable risk metrics to define inherent risk.
• Comes with a reasonable price structure.

2. Cookiebot by Usercentrics

• Headquartered in Denmark
• It offers data privacy management supporting GDPR compliance for websites.
• The tool works free for a single domain website but has a paid plan for a complex series of websites to handle.
• It comes with a user-friendly design and helps with cookie consent management.

3. Osano

• Headquartered in Texas.
• The platform is used by more than 750,000 websites around the globe.
• With features and laws around GDPR and CCPA, the tool ensures that your website is designed to protect the data of consumers.
• It mitigates the risk of the websites being sued.
• It is easy to use.

Wrapping Up

Dealing with the latest data privacy rules is difficult but not impossible. Certain habits need a push for change. Once the marketers accept decline of third-party cookies, they can refocus themselves to achieve their objectives through alternative techniques.

Zero-party and first-party data are already here until a new alternative comes to the rescue.