Kochava announces new privacy-first approach to block health services locations from the Kochava Collective marketplace

Kochava, the leading real-time data solutions company for omni-channel attribution, measurement and data, announced a new capability for the Kochava Collective, the largest independent data marketplace for connected devices. “Privacy Block” removes health services location data from the Kochava Collective marketplace. This new capability leverages a collaboration across multiple location insights partners who have independently identified health care services locations within the U.S. The Kochava Collective Privacy Block will be made available in the Kochava Collective by the end of Q3, 2022.

Privacy Block aggregates health services locations which have been identified by a broad range of industry partners into a unified, super-set definition of health services locations. “Today, there are millions of locations that could be categorized as health care services locations in the U.S. and mobile devices pass in and out of the boundaries of these locations. There is no federal regulation or federal database which catalogs these locations to protect consumer privacy,” said Brian Cox, GM of the Kochava Collective. Furthermore, the regulatory landscape varies from state to state. For example, the sale of marijuana, access to abortion services, and the general role of consent for gathering data from mobile devices differs dramatically among states.

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“We believe it’s important for the industry to be proactive and to collaborate on a unified health services location block list”

A composite block list is key to maximize consumer privacy amidst these variations. By leveraging multiple vendor location definitions for what each vendor determines is a health services location, and blocking the onward transfer of this data, Privacy Block maximizes consumer privacy in a seamless and effective manner. “We believe it’s important for the industry to be proactive and to collaborate on a unified health services location block list,” continued Cox. Kochava invites ecosystem vendors to register to participate with Privacy Block and contribute at https://kochava.com/privacy-block. In addition, those in the health services sector can register to block their location directly in Privacy Block.

The Kochava Collective marketplace buys location data from 3rd-party companies who represent that consent has been provided by consumers for the purpose of gathering their location data. The location data is then made available to the advertising ecosystem via the Kochava Collective marketplace for a variety of advertising purposes, including measuring advertising effectiveness in driving people to physical stores or locations and to observe the effectiveness of billboard advertising. As an aggregator of location data from a variety of 3rd-party data suppliers, the company believes it is important to block information relating to health services locations prior to any use cases related to advertising.

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Cox further summarized, “Mobile devices prompt for consent to gather location information today as a function of the mobile operating system (Apple iOS and Google Android). Mobile devices cannot track location without first gaining consent from the consumer.”

Nonetheless, even if consumers previously consented to share their location data, Privacy Block adds an extra layer of protection as part of the Kochava Collective commitment to consumer privacy.

“Privacy Block and the related collaboration with partners is good for privacy and good for business. The goal is quality, consented, privacy-safe data and this new capability helps further deliver on that objective,” continued Cox.