As we just recently crossed the fifth year anniversary of GDPR, one thing has become clearly evident — regulators will continue their tough stance on violations. I noted as much in my 5 Data Privacy Trends to Watch in 2022 article written for AdMonsters.

Well, just last week, while everyone in ad tech was traversing La Croisette for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2023, the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) levied a hefty fine against global commerce media company, Criteo.

The revised fine of €40M ($44 Million), dates back to complaints filed by None of Your Business (NOYB), an Austria-based nonprofit, and Privacy International in 2018, stating that Criteo did not have a legitimate legal basis for behavioral targeting. CNIL’s initial investigation in 202o found the ad tech company in breach of GDPR, slapping them with a €60M fine. Criteo attests that their actions were not deliberate, nor did they cause any harm. Criteo also argued that the initial fine represented half of its earnings and 3% of its global sales, which is “close to the legal maximum” allowable under GDPR.

I took a deep dive into Criteo’s 40M GDPR fine from the CNIL (one of the highest fines for cookie-related violations). Below are three highlights that jumped out at me:

Proof of Consent Required – Although the collection of consent for cookies was the responsibility of Criteo’s partners, who are in direct contact with their website users, Criteo was still required to verify and be able to demonstrate that these users gave their consent. The CNIL required Criteo to incorporate a new clause on proof of consent in its contracts. Partners must “promptly provide Criteo, upon request and at any time, with proof that the consent of the data subject has been obtained by the partner.” I am interested to see whether the CNIL will come back to Criteo to see if this clause has been exercised. Accountability is the new king. Adtech companies will need a solution for auditing and demonstrating accountability in the U.S. and EU, as regulators in both jurisdictions are no longer willing to allow companies to rely on paper assurances.

Consent Can Be Given and Taken Away – The CNIL alleged that when a person exercised their right to withdraw consent, the process implemented by the company only stopped the display of personalized advertisements to the user; it did not stop all processing activities. Criteo addressed this by putting in place a procedure to allow individuals to exercise their right to withdraw consent directly by clicking the button “Deactivate Criteo Services” in the company’s privacy policy.

Joint Controller Agreements work for Ad Tech – The CNIL did not challenge the joint controller agreements Criteo had in place with partners, but they got dinged for not specifying all of the respective obligations of controllers under the GDPR, such as the exercise by data subjects of their rights, the obligation to notify the supervisory authority and data subjects of a data breach or, if necessary, the carrying out of an impact assessment under Article 35 of the GDPR.

This is a huge fine (2% of turnover), but most of the issues raised seemed solvable to me.

The post A Deep Dive Into Criteo’s 40M GDPR Fine From the CNIL appeared first on AdMonsters.

Data privacy regulations like Europe’s GDPR, California’s CCPA, and now the amended CPRA disrupted businesses as they grappled with the challenge of ensuring compliance. 

To better help the industry comply with the notice and choice obligations required under said new laws, IAB Tech Lab collaborates with industry stakeholders and local trade bodies to support the development of frameworks like IAB Europe’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) and the IAB’s US Privacy Framework. 

However, building distinct technology solutions for every jurisdiction was not sustainable. In September 2022, the IAB Tech Lab first launched the Global Privacy Platform (GPP) and recently closed public comment for the next version of the API.

Understanding the Global Privacy Platform (GPP)

As an industry, we must ensure that we provide the appropriate transparency and choice as required by law. More importantly, we need to consistently communicate user consent and choice preferences, ensuring that all parties can comprehend them properly.

 By doing so, we can handle users’ data in a manner that aligns with their preferences. GPP aims to solve the challenge of creating a common language for everyone in the ecosystem. This solution was developed over several years involving stakeholders from across the ecosystem, including publishers, advertisers, and ad tech vendors.

The key components of the GPP that should be understood are the privacy string and the available string transport mechanisms. These mechanisms include a field in the Regs object in openRTB, parameters and macros for URL-based services, and a standard API. It is the API portion of the GPP that the IAB Tech Lab is updating, but more on that later.

The GPP string can carry privacy signals for any supported jurisdiction. It currently supports privacy signals for Europe’s GDPR, Canada, and five states in the US that have privacy laws (California, Virginia, Utah, Colorado, and Connecticut). Notably, the GPP is extensible and goes beyond just supporting jurisdiction and also allows support for other industry signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC).

Exploring GPP API v1.1

Delving into the specifics of the update, it’s important to understand what remains unchanged. The GPP string, a core component of the protocol, will stay as is. There are also no updates to how the GPP string is passed in openRTB and using the defined macros and parameters. Let’s dig into the changes in the GPP API.

The primary changes to the API were born from industry feedback that it needed to better support callers of the API who operate within an iframe on a web page. Version 1.1 of the API includes callback support for all commands. This allows vendors who work within an iframe to use all the available commands that the API supports rather than just a subset.

In addition to adding callback support, version 1.1 of the API includes updates to status codes. While this may sound insignificant, on the surface, it is vital for callers of the API. There are additional explanations for several of the existing status codes. Still, the most important of the updates is the addition of a new event called signalStatus with potential values of “ready” or “not ready.” This new event adds a lot of clarity to when a GPP string, the representation of the user’s consent and choice preferences, is ready to be used. This will reduce the potential for confusion or misrepresentation.

 To reduce the number of calls needed to extract the appropriate information, version 1.1 of the API includes several optimizations to the objects returned by the API. These optimizations also help with reducing the complexity of vendor scripts.

Details are available here for those looking to dive deeper into the specifics of the updates included in version 1.1.

Implications of the Update on GPP Implementers

All stakeholders, including publishers, advertisers, and consent management platforms (CMPs), along with any vendors utilizing the API for GPP string retrieval, are urged to support the new version of the API which was finalized earlier this month. The enhancements are designed to better infer the privacy signals and enrich interactions with the API. For those vendors that aren’t interacting with the API and instead rely on fetching GPP strings via openRTB or URL macros, there’s no need for any changes. You are unaffected by this update.

As privacy regulation continues to evolve, so will the Global Privacy Platform. The GPP is ready to adapt and evolve to meet the needs of a global privacy landscape that shows no signs of standing still.

The post What Is the Global Privacy Platform (GPP) API v1.1? appeared first on AdMonsters.

One of the biggest changes in this area is that first-party data is given freely by online users, often in exchange for some sort of direct user benefit like a better experience online. 

As advertisers and publishers ask more users for their information online, a crucial part of the exchange is trust; consumers want to know that the data they are offering will only be used in the way they have authorized.

During AdMonsters’ March 29 webinar, “Consent-Based Advertising: How You Can Automatically Build Audience Trust,” OneTrust’s Strategic Solutions Engineer, Arshdeep Sood, explained why trust is crucial to building a relationship with your audience, how to keep abreast of the changes in privacy regulations, and why first-party data is nothing to be concerned about. 

Trust in the Digital Age

As the digital world evolves, concerns surrounding privacy are oftentimes the most stressful. To go beyond third-party cookies and understand your audience so that you can provide the best value data output, it all boils down to trust. 

“The last decade was all about transformation,” says Sood. The fast-paced world of data has required innovation in ways that sometimes seemed impossible, with the aim of providing better customer experiences, improving efficiencies, creating sustainable practices, and of course, staying in business. 

Sood asks, “What are we doing to protect the data that we have access to? Are we ensuring equity and inclusivity and even diversity across our business practices? And are we truly creating a culture of high ethical standards across the board?” All of these questions are about creating trust. 

Customers have trust expectations for companies they spend money with. Sood notes Adobe reported in 2022 that 69 percent of consumers stated they would stop doing business with a company that uses their data without permission. 

Add to this rules and regulations that vary from state to state and it can be difficult to navigate the changing landscape while maintaining and building upon user trust. This requires a change in mindset, Sood explains. 

[To view the full webinar, watch the video above.]

Building Trust Does Matter 

Users who trust a company are more likely to allow their data to be used in innovative ways, pay a premium for that company’s products and services, and maintain purchasing loyalty over time. Since it impacts your bottom line, trust is something you need to maintain a competitive advantage. 

Apple is working on building this trust with its latest update to iOS, which notifies the user of apps on their phone that are collecting data and tracking the user. This “App Tracking Transparency” prompt prohibits apps access to this data without first notifying the user. 

Sood notes that for these apps, building trust with the user can look like getting consent and even possibly discussing the value exchange and why access to this data is important. Also, use your Apple Privacy Nutrition Labels wisely. Employees working in compliance should collaborate with team members across development and marketing and advertising to ensure that you have the right strategy in place, she says. 

Competitive Advantage: Keeping up with Privacy Regulations

“In the face of new regulations, agility is going to be your competitive advantage to build that trust with the customer,” notes Sood. Rather than responding to new privacy law changes at the moment, she advises what will set programs apart is their ability to anticipate requirements of upcoming legislation and avoid the pain of last-minute changes. 

It is expected that by the end of 2023, 75 percent of the world will be affected by one of the recent privacy regulations, and more privacy regulations are actively coming down the pipeline all over the United States. Sood recommends working toward a strategy to deal with these changes in regulations as soon as possible. 

She adds that the job should be a team effort. “The privacy team is responsible to help you build business continuity to really enable marketing to have a very compliant risk-mitigated experience, but at the same time marketing and data teams are responsible for the end user journey.”

Last, Sood explains that privacy risk is a brand risk. The penalty for not adhering to privacy standards will not only be monetary, it will also affect your brand’s reputation because anything that happens within your company to affect consumer rights will be publicly accessible. 

Just like in personal relationships, you need to be clear about how you are using a person’s data, and if the use changes, you are responsible for informing them. You want this relationship to last long term, so make your users feel valued and like they own the data, she advises. 

Some Acronyms You Need to Know

TCF & GDPR: When we think about this process, several acronyms come to mind, says Sood, one of which is TCF, Transparency and Consent Framework. A TCF banner is concerned with providing the right notification and collecting the right type of consent and an affirmative opt-in from users to align with GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) requirements. However, these regulations are evolving and there is currently legislation surrounding these privacy measures and how they will ultimately be used. 

Sood explains it is crucial to keep abreast of these rulings to be prepared for any necessary changes that are on the horizon. OneTrust keeps a log of these changes to help its partners know of important updates. 

GPP & MSPA: Another big piece of the puzzle is the GPP, Global Privacy Platform. This aligns with the MSPA, which is the Multi-state Privacy Agreement across all the different states, Sood notes. To simplify all these varying rules and regulations, she says, “With the GPP, the idea is you can make sure that one singular signal directs a specific consent model and data point to the ad text providers downstream to ensure that you’re aligning with regulations and also [doing so] in the best possible fashion.”

The MSPA assumes a user is a resident of each state, which means it defaults to the highest possible national standard for privacy. 

What this all boils down to essentially is that from an advertiser’s perspective, it is imperative to look out for the GPP signals. Explains Sood, “You want to sign up for MSP and prepare yourselves to honor the signals, because you’re going to expect it coming downstream, and you will want to decode it and decide how you operate.” This is similar for publishers – these signals will ensure the regulations are being met, and pass along this information to vendor partners. 

“That’s why publishers, advertisers, and vendors, you really need to work in tandem to ensure that everybody’s listening to the same things, and CMP providers like OneTrust, we’re the ones who will be helping you generate that GPP and sending it downstream,” Sood shares. In fact, Sood says, the GPP platform is already in use, helping OneTrust’s customers.

Don’t Be Intimidated by First-Party Data

The future of data will phase out third-party cookies in favor of first-party data capture, meaning companies will need to build a first-party data capture focusing on consent. To do this effectively, Sood says companies need to evolve from a tick box compliance system into a powerful consent strategy that will transform the user’s experience holistically. 

Many consumers are looking for value in their online experience, meaning that rather than being something to worry about, the dissolution of third-party cookies should be seen as an opportunity to build a relationship with consumers. You will want to advertise to them, but also re-target and re-market to keep them coming back. 

“To do that you want to deliver timely offers, have customer service available to the user, if they bought your product and you want them as a returning user. You want to target new relevant content to the user and also provide any customer recommendations,” such as content that is on theme with what they previously bought, Sood says. 

Consent, says Sood, is here to help your marketing strategies. It’s a way to give users unique choices and the opportunity to tell you about what they want so you can make sure you are offering that to them. It allows you to truly personalize the user experience. 

When you give users content that is relevant to who they are, they are more likely to want to know more. You can build this into your interface, so they can offer this information to you directly. This information can be fed downstream, to relevant places like apps, data warehouses, and email marketing systems. 

“And this really circles everything together for us in this webinar today. We started out by discussing how technology, privacy, and consumers are dictating this change … It’s important for you to understand that until the user gives you consent, you will not be able to process the best possible dataset or build new datasets for yourself. And so, complying with these [regulations and] getting the right interfaces out there and leveraging that for users opt-in to activate your ecosystem and help you retarget is going to be instrumental,” Sood explains.

The post Webinar Replay: Consumer Consent & Trust Are Competitive Advantages appeared first on AdMonsters.

Last week the Connecticut House of Representatives and Connecticut Senate joined forces to pass the Connecticut Data Privacy Act (CTDPA). The legislation, also known as Senate Bill 6 (SB6), awaits Governor Ned Lamont’s signature to make everything 100% official. The bill is expected to take effect on July 1, 2023. 

The CTDPA mirrors recently instilled state privacy laws, allowing consumers to opt-out of data sales, targeted ads, and profiling decisions that “produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning the consumer.” This new provision will also include protection for minors and biometric data.

I know your next question is, what types of pubs would this apply to?

• Pubs that do business in CT or produce products or services targeted at residents
• Pubs that control or process consumer data of at least 100,000 people a year or gain over 25% of gross revenue from the “sale” of personal data and control or process the data of at least 25,000 people a year.

The consumer side of me says, “Way to go!” Yet, the ad tech side is thinking, “Darn.” Each new state privacy law only adds more and more hoops for pubs to jump through.

Get in the Know About CTDPA

If you are wondering what aspect of “consumer data” will be guarded by CTDPA, it is the information connected to an identified person. This does not include any information about someone that is public or considered de-identified data.

This is the second stab at a privacy law by the “Constitution State,” remember, Connecticut tried it last year and failed. This go-round, the bill is coming on strong and will even include the “right to cure” clause giving pubs some time to do some damage control before getting hit with a lawsuit. If you are caught violating the rules? Forget about it. There will be no time at that point to fix the infraction, and you may even get accused of “soliciting user consent.”

Pubs have a 60-day fix-it period to figure out reported violations until December 21, 2024. Starting January 1, 2025, the CTDPA will only grant a cure period if the Connecticut Attorney General sees fit, so be careful.

With the CTDPA opt-in consent for sensitive data is a must. Racial origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health condition or diagnosis, sexual orientation, sexual history, immigration status, genetic or biometric data, children’s data, and geolocation data are all included.

Speaking of children, pubs will have to get opt-in consent from consumers under the age of 16 before using their data to target ads or monetize. You have to keep the kids first because when it comes to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, you don’t want any problems.

Like privacy laws in Colorado and Virginia, CT consumers will have the authority to appeal a denial of a consumer request.

How Will CTDPA Affect the Advertising Ecosystem?

At the rate things are going, pubs will continue to be stuck in a cycle of scrambling to find new ways to identify consumers. While these state privacy laws are seemingly a step in the right direction for consumers, they sometimes create extra work for pubs and outsourcing vendors.

Many publishers feel they may go bald before Federal privacy legislation sees the light of day, but President Biden has been making baby steps in that direction after discovering a recent “national experiment” by big tech that utilized children’s data.

Potus said, “It’s time to strengthen privacy protections, ban targeted advertising to children, demand tech companies stop collecting personal data on our children.”

Whether it is a child or your great-great-grandma, pubs will continue to have to dip and dive through many loopholes when it comes to targeted ads and addressability because those violation consequences ain’t pretty.

The post What Is CTDPA? appeared first on AdMonsters.

Guess what? Preparing for privacy regulations, along with the death of the third-party cookie (and other identifiers used to target individuals and measure advertising) is still a colossal challenge.

So, what’s coming to the data and privacy landscape in 2022? Expect more state-led privacy legislation coming to the table, GDPR to kick it up a notch while privacy spans global, privacy ad tech to get a lot of shine, cookieless solutions to face the music, and global privacy controls to gain traction. Real-time bidding they’re coming for you.

5 Data Privacy Trends for 2022

The State Privacy Party Will Continue

There will be no federal privacy law this year. Instead, the “patchwork” of state privacy laws will continue. In addition to Colorado, Virginia, and California, I expect two-three more states to pass privacy laws this session. It’s not clear which states will go, but there will be more states to contend with by the end of 2022.

This is going to require companies to create (if they haven’t already) comprehensive privacy programs that allow them to understand what data they collect, where it sits, how they use it, who they share it with, and the value of that data.  This is not a one-time exercise, it will require ongoing maintenance.

This is the foundation that will help companies layer on additional privacy requirements as they come in, instead of scrambling and starting from old information each time there is a new law/obligation.  This exercise impacts legal, IT, procurement/sourcing, and the sales and marketing teams. The days when privacy was a problem for legal or compliance to deal with are over.

Privacy Goes Global

There is a lot of conversation about state privacy laws and the lack of federal privacy legislation, but outside of the U.S., we are seeing privacy go global. In the EU, I expect to see the enforcement of the GDPR and e-Privacy continue to escalate. After a few “quiet” years with a small number of fines, the cases filed with the various data protection authorities have worked their way through the system and the increase in fines reported in 2021 will likely continue. I expect there to be a focus on the use of cookies and the practice of programmatic advertising and real-time bidding.

Both the ICO in the UK and CNIL in France investigated this practice in 2019 and 2022 may be the year that they start to enforce the warnings previously given. Outside of the EU, Canada and Australia are updating their privacy laws, India is considering a new privacy law, China will be enforcing the law it passed last year, and Saudi Arabia (among other countries) passed a privacy law last year.

I expect to see the trend of increased privacy regulation and enforcement around the globe continue.  Companies will need to navigate much more than the U.S. privacy landscape if they really want to work on a global scale (see prediction #1 about the need for a privacy program).

Privacy Tech Will Take Center Stage

As regulators, consumers, and the big platforms continue to put pressure on business models that rely on the sharing of personal information, companies will turn to technology to help them achieve their business goals.  In 2021 we saw the rise of privacy-enhancing technologies – in 2022 they will take center stage.

Techniques like differential privacy and homomorphic encryption, along with solutions that involve synthetic data, will gain in popularity as sharing personal information continues to be stymied by privacy-related restrictions. Clean rooms will stay in the mix as a privacy-forward solution. Companies should expect to see more of these solutions being marketed in their inboxes and will need to understand the technology and its implications as they decide which to add to their tech stack.

Post-cookie Solutions Will Be Put to the Test

At the top of 2022, we are still anxiously awaiting news on the proposed regulations under the CPRA. The head of the CPPA, the agency writing those rules, has signaled some skepticism about e-mail based identifiers. That doesn’t mean they won’t survive, but they may be subject to the same restrictions currently placed on cookie IDs and similar identifiers.

Global Privacy Controls Will Gain Traction

I am using the lowercase here because I don’t know if uppercase GPC is the final word on what a global control looks like and I think there are still too many open questions about its implementation. That said, I think there is a real concern with how consumer choice is provided – regulators don’t like the idea that consumers have to navigate the privacy practices of each website they visit in order to exercise those choices (and neither do consumers).

My hope is that we have more dialogue on how a “gpc” should function and some standard setting for the signals sent.  First, we need to understand what exactly are consumers opting out of?

Each state has a different definition and slightly different approaches to what activities a consumer should be able to opt-out of – how can there be a “global” tool when there aren’t global definitions?

Second, there hasn’t been enough alignment on the logistics — how will platforms receive the opt-out signal, what is the impact on offline activities, how should browsers communicate the potential limitations, and how can we allow consumers to make individual choices for companies they have a relationship with.  I hope to see some of these questions answered before we see significant enforcement of unclear expectations.

The post 5 Data Privacy Trends to Watch in 2022 appeared first on AdMonsters.

Privacy Won’t Kill Data-Driven Advertising

Today, 69% of countries have adopted consumer data privacy legislation, and 10% have legislation under review. Only 5% of the world has no legislation whatsoever. These regulations seek control over data collection to one degree or another.  

Do these developments spell the end of digital advertising? Does that, in turn, mean the end of free, and low-cost content for everyday people? Fortunately, the answer is no. For two key reasons.

First, thanks to next-generation companies like 1plusX, publishers and marketers can deploy AI to understand users better and predict behavior, enabling them to target and engage their ideal audiences in privacy-compliant ways. Second, while third-party data is increasingly prohibited, plenty of highly relevant and privacy-compliant data is still available. What’s more, this data will better serve all parties involved, including the publisher, advertiser, and most of all, the user.

The Hyper-Valuable Data Publishers Don’t Know They Have

Publishers, especially those with large media properties, already have a wealth of data they can leverage. However, it’s different from the typical third-party datasets that aggregators have traditionally collected and sold.

A small portion of that first-party dataset is deterministic. This is the data the user opts to disclose during the registration workflow (e.g., age, gender, household income, specific interests, and offers to redeem). 

But let’s not get hung up on size; the girth of the deterministic dataset is irrelevant. When mixed with the publisher’s media asset data, its actual value is revealed. When these two data sources are combined the result is unique, high-quality audience segments that can drive precise targeting across channels.

“AI can step in where deterministic data ends. When deployed correctly, it can predict unknown user demographics and psychographic attributes with a high degree of accuracy,” explained Jürgen Galler, CEO of 1plusX.

What’s meant by media asset data? This is data that goes beyond the metadata that categorizes the subject of a piece of content and is the publisher’s secret sauce. Media asset data incorporates the content the users read or engage with, the specific words, personalities, and sentiments expressed in the article, images, and videos, as well as the user signals that such engagement sends. Capturing this data represents untapped potential for both publishers and advertisers. 

Unlike third-party data, which is always predefined, AI can make a deeper set of predictions about a user’s behavior based on the content they engage with (or opt to ignore) within a specific media property. By running this data through myriad models, publishers can predict a huge array of attributes, including demographic, socio-economic, and psychographic insights. Publishers can also score a user’s likely level of interest in a category. 

Things get interesting when publishers begin to layer on the results in precise ways, leading to better understandings of an audience and, ultimately, highly granular profiles for targeting.

Powering the Future of Contextual Targeting

Many people rightly claim that a privacy-centric world will need to innovate on contextual targeting. However, a current challenge in advertising today is attitude. Specifically, the industry tends to look solely at users for profiling and targeting; we don’t look at media assets as legitimate cohorts for targeting purposes. I guess we’ve been scarred by the faux pas of early contextual targeting.

This is a mistake. Rather than seek users who match an advertiser’s targeting requirements, the industry should also consider targeting media assets that attract users who also fit a campaign’s criteria. This distinction will ultimately allow us to reach a more significant percentage of the desired audience. 

To reach audiences at scale, we need to stop thinking of contextual targeting as a tactic that’s limited to the keywords contained in an article or video; we need to expand it so that it incorporates what content triggers (e.g., female readers, readers who’ll be more inclined to click on a specific ad later on).

This approach has many benefits, beginning with it being truly omnichannel. In addition, the same profile definition of an audience can be deployed to target across all digital ecosystems, including CTV.

Can you envision a future in which publishers and advertisers invest in data management platforms for media assets that allows for rich contextual targeting capabilities?

Predictions for an AI-Driven Future

What will an AI-driven, cookie-free future look like for both publishers and advertisers? To begin, both the sell-side and the buy-side will enjoy expanded reach. For example, a publisher might not have deterministic data for all users who are interested in organic wellness products, but by deploying AI to its media asset data, it can identify and monetize all of its users who share that interest. The result will be more efficient campaigns for the advertiser, and higher CPMs for the publisher.

What’s more, AI will drive e-commerce opportunities for the publisher, a trend more media companies are seeking to exploit these days. For example, NBCUniversal’s checkout enables businesses to sell directly to consumers from its article and video content. Imagine if it deployed AI to its media asset data so that its advertisers could reach and engage the entire pool of potential audience members for a specific product.

Galler envisions a scenario in which publishers are positioned to obtain more well-rounded views of users, which has been the Holy Grail of marketing. Users have, on average, 20 different CX touchpoints as they switch between connected devices several times throughout the day. Publishers and brands have struggled to capture all of those signals and tie them to a single user. 

AI can leverage probabilistic matching and stitch all of the multiple IDs of a single user together. This AI use case will ensure that when, for example, a user updates their privacy preferences on a mobile device they’ll be honored on all 20 touchpoints. And it’ll enable both the publisher and the marketer to obtain more nuanced audience profiles.

Stronger, Better Relationships Ahead

Ultimately, by combining all sorts of data — and deploying AI for data enrichment to obtain complete pictures of a user — everyone will benefit, including the consumer. 

This can be achieved by using a next-gen data management platform, such as 1plusX, that combines first-party data with contextual media strategies and DMP tactics marketers already deploy to expand audience reach. It also enables data collaboration between publishers and advertisers to meet consumers they might have otherwise not been able to target.

Going forward, this will transform the publisher/marketer relationship, prompting both to form deeper connections and better cooperation.

The post How AI Will Drive the Future of Advertising appeared first on AdMonsters.

Our aim, with The Wrapper, is to summarize exciting news items that catch our eyes and link them to wider developments in digital media and advertising. And we also point you in the direction of great podcasts and compelling industry voices to follow on social media.

A lot of exciting happenings went down in 2021, from failed FLoC trials to increasing ad spend shifts to digital after a tumultuous 202o to the big tech crackdown to Apple’s many privacy updates upending how mobile pubs monetize their apps and we tried to catch it all.

Here’s a look back at the Top 12 Wrapper issues of 2021.

Guess Who’s Back? Advertising Spend Makes A Comeback

2020 was a tumultuous year for publishers, but signs that we’re rebounding couldn’t be more clear. For instance, just take a look at this U.S. Ad Market Tracker, a collaboration between MediaPost and Standard Media Index based on total ad spending by the major agency holding companies.

You’ll note a steady growth over a period of four months, starting in August, that came after a precipitous decline in ad spend starting in March fueled by the impact of Coronavirus. Overall, digital has been the major media catalyst for growth, expanding 29.3% in November.

Also in this issue: The New York Times Weathered COVID With First-Party Data; 2021, Say Hello to Email; Ding Dong, Adobe Flash is Dead

66% of Marketers Say Audience Beats Context, Pubs Disagree

Lotame’s new report, Beyond the Cookie: The Future of Advertising for Marketers & Publishers, reveals that, while 66% of marketers don’t think contextual targeting is enough to replace audience targeting, 69% of pubs believe context will win in a post-cookie space. It also notes that just 38% of pubs are searching for a solution to the end of third-party tracking, and 16% are using more contextual/intent data while looking for a more permanent solution.

Also in this issue: Virginia Gets Closer to Passing Consumer Privacy Reg; Facebook Fudges Numbers; TTD Hands Over Control of UID 2.0 to Prebid; Maryland Passed a Tax on Digital Advertising

We’re Not Ready for the Cookiepocalypse

While 67% of data leaders report that their organizations are prepared for the impending loss of third-party cookies and identifiers, a staggering percentage of the industry is concerned about future limitations for targeting (45%), as well as for ad campaign measurement (41%), according to a new report from the IAB. Those numbers reek of bewilderment. No? Then why, oh why, is the industry still spending inordinate amounts of cash on third-party data?

Also in this issue: Is Your CMS Killing Your ROI?; Disney, Discovery, and ViacomCBS are Building Their Own Ad Tech; YouTube Unveiled Plans to Tap Into the Rise of CTV

Core Web Vitals Delayed; Browsers Say No to FLoC

If Google’s new Core Web Vitals benchmarks for the “page experience” became the standard for how sites get ranked in search today — most sites wouldn’t rank highly at all. At least that’s according to analysis from SearchMetrics (reg wall), which parsed over 2 million webpages and found that only 4% of them got “good” scores across all three of the Core Web Vitals. (Interestingly enough, Google’s own YouTube didn’t score well at all).

And: While FLoC testing has commenced on Chrome, other browsers—Edge, Safari, and Firefox—are pushing back on Google’s cookie replacement. The triad of browsers joins the Brave Browser, which knocked the Big G’s cookie alternative for not really being a privacy solution last week. Vivaldi also won’t be participating in the FLoC trials, and DuckDuck Go has released an extension to block FLoC.

Also in this issue: Ad Spend Coming Back Strong; Ad Tech CTV Alliance; Cookie Death Will Compound Ad Tech Issues; Contextual Raises Another Round

PulsePoint Grab Gives Internet Brands In-House Programmatic Pipes

Two quick thoughts came to mind when we saw the news that Internet Brands was acquiring health-focused ad tech platform PulsePoint. First: Internet Brands wants to bring programmatic capabilities in-house. Second: Is Internet Brands, with its 250 million monthly uniques, and a variety of advertising offerings, now the 800-pound digital media gorilla when it comes to health content?

Also in this issue: Apple Vs. Everybody: The Saga Continues; There’s Gold in Them Thar Connected Devices; The Duopoly Continues to Dominate, Even in the Midst of the Pandemic; OpenID Comes to Linear TV to Target Audiences and Measure Campaigns Across Screens

Will IP Address Signals Disappear Next?

Third-party cookies are near death, there’s more unknown than known about UIDs (Universal IDs) and FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts), and now, IP addresses are soon to be a targeting method of the past.

Also in this issue: The Audio Boom Continues; Pubs in Search of Post-pandemic Revenue Streams; CTV Is Only Growing

FLoC Trial Ends, None the Wiser

“We’ve decided not to extend this initial Origin Trial. Instead, we’re hard at work on improving FLoC to incorporate the feedback we’ve heard from the community before advancing to further ecosystem testing,” wrote senior software engineer Josh Karlin in a Chromium Blink development forum.

Also in this issue: USA Today Launches Paywall, But Who’s The Target Audience?; How Has Working From Home Shaped Ad Blocking?; The End of Big Tech?; TTD Vs Walled Gardens

What Will Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection Mean for Newsletters?

Spoiler alert: It’s not pretty. Many publications opine that Apple Mail Privacy Protection is going to drastically change the way newsletter marketing takes place and that said marketers must readjust their strategies now before changes go into effect.

Also in this issue: Apple’s ATT Privacy Changes a Boon for Amazon?; FTC Refiles Lawsuit Against Facebook. Is It for the Wrong Reasons?

Whaddya Mean Newsletter Subscription Fatigue?; Half of U.S. Consumers Prefer AVOD

Alex Kantrowitz, writer of the Big Technology Newsletter and the book ALWAYS DAY ONE: How The Tech Titans Plan To Stay On Top Forever, said that the rumblings of newsletter fatigue are mere rumblings. In fact, he believes the opposite is taking place and he dubs it the “Newsletter Network Effect.”

And: Two recent reports, one from Future Today and one from Roku show that consumers love AVOD content, including the ads, because they don’t have to pay much for subscriptions with free ad-supported TV.

Is Google Double Dipping?

Talk about inflating ad deals. In an unredacted lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, it was discovered that Google takes between 22-42% of each ad transaction that moves through its system. This is anywhere between two and four times the amount rival ad exchanges take.

Also in this issue: Did Google and Facebook Collude Against Apple?; How Apple’s Privacy Changes Really Hurt

IAB Europe in Breach of GDPR; AI Runs Globe and Mail Paywall

Google and countless other advertisers rely on IAB Europe’s consent management system, which has now been deemed in violation of GDPR.

And: AI runs Globe and Mail paywall. And it’s doing a stellar job. So much so that the company is offering it as a SaaS product. Named Sophi, it controls home page placement of stories and the metering of stories—how many free articles a consumer gets before being prompted to subscribe.

Could CMA Commitments Delay Cookie Cutoff Further?

The ICO’s (Information Commissioner’s Office) outgoing commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, posted a scathing opinion piece where she “warns the industry [behavioral advertising industry] that its old unlawful tricks simply won’t do in the future.”

Also in this issue: The Lingering Impact of the Long Goodbye to Third-Party Cookies; Are Content Creators and Influencers > Media and Brands?; Making Ad Tech and Advertising More Sustainable??

The post Best of AdMonsters Wrapper 2021: Top 12 Stories in Digital Media and Ad Tech appeared first on AdMonsters.

On July 7, 2021, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed the Colorado Privacy Act (aka CPA or ColoPA depending on who you ask) into law. This makes Colorado the third state — joining California and Virginia — to pass comprehensive privacy legislation. Publishers and marketers will need to comply by July 1, 2023.

Much like its predecessors, California’s CCPA and CPRA, as well as Virginia’s VCDPA (with a dash of GDPR thrown in), the CPA will give Colorado residents a bunch of privacy rights, including the right to access, correct, and delete their personal data, and to opt-out of the processing of their data for targeted advertising, sale of their personal data, and profiling.

Also like the others, the CPA could significantly impact personalized advertising. This is a major concern for the advertising ecosystem, as Apple and Google are making changes that limit the targeting of individuals for advertising and content personalization purposes.

As other states are likely to follow suit (and a Federal Privacy Law is imminent) it’s imperative that publishers, advertisers, and ad tech companies think ahead and plan for solutions that are flexible enough to adjust for all types of scenarios. Consumers are looking for transparency and a clear understanding of the value exchange provided when you’re asking them to opt-in. As such, being prepared for CCPA and VCDPA won’t necessarily mean you’re covered for CPA, as there are a few key differences.

Who Needs to Comply With CPA?

If you’re conducting business in the state of Colorado or providing goods and services targeted to Colorado residents and either control or process data of 100,000 or more Colorado residents in a calendar year, or bring in revenue from the sale of personal data and control or process the personal data of at least 25,000 Colorado residents, then this law applies to you.

CPA and VCDPA focus on the amounts of data processed by businesses, rather than the amount of revenue generated like CCPA. And as a first, unlike CCPA and VCDPA, CPA will also hold nonprofit companies accountable.

Publishers, and their advertising partners, should take note of how Colorado defines “personal data” as information that is “linked or reasonably linkable to an identified or identifiable individual,” which means that the individual can be identified either directly or indirectly by reference to an identifier, including either a name, identification number, geolocation data or other online identifiers.

Key Differences Between CPA and Both CCPA and VCDPA

Sure, you’ve got a jump on CPA if you’re already in compliance with CCPA or prepping compliance with VCDPA, but you should also pay close attention to some key differences that might provide a few bumps in the road.

The advertising ecosystem should pay close attention to the following differences:

• CPA enforcement power will reside with the state’s AG and DA and violations will be classified as deceptive trade practices that can be fined $20,000, unlike CCPA and VCDPA which fine up to $7,500 for violations. This will limit consumer-initiated litigation.
• Under CPA, there is a 60-day cure period (unlike the 30 days you get with CCPA and VCDPA) before enforcement action will be taken by the AG and DA. Noncompliance can result in civil penalties of not more than $2,000 per violation, not to exceed $500,000 in total for any related series of violations. The cure period will only be provided until January 1, 2025.
• Data protection assessments will be a lot more rigorous, requiring ongoing documentation of all processing activities involving the processing of personal data.
• As well the regulation provides an opt-out provision mandating that requires businesses to provide consumers with a one-click, universal opt-out feature. It will be up to the AG’s office to provide the technical rules for such mechanisms. Consumer requests can be denied if they cannot be authenticated. This universal opt-out requirement syncs with recent news that the California AG is now requiring that all companies adhere to opt-out requests sent via Global Privacy Control (GPC).
• CPA also introduces a sensitive data requirement, which means businesses have to obtain consumer consent for the processing of data that might reveal racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, mental or physical health condition or diagnosis, sex life or sexual orientation, or citizenship or citizenship status, or genetic or biometric data as well as personal data from a known child.
• Consumer portability rights include personal data both collected from and about the consumer. Not only will consumers have the right to receive any personal data collected by a publisher or advertiser in a portable format, but they can also request any other information that was collected about them.
• “Sales” include personal data exchanged for non-monetary purposes. Like CCPA, CPA defines sale broadly, but also like VCDPA, it excludes some exchanges of data from the definition, including disclosure to “affiliates.”

Thinking Ahead

This isn’t just a matter of updating compliance systems and processes around consent management, it’s also time to think ahead to how you will target and measure advertising campaigns effectively. If you don’t already have a first-party data strategy in place and aren’t testing out ID solutions, what exactly are you waiting for?

The post What Is the Colorado Privacy Act (CPA aka ColoPA)? appeared first on AdMonsters.

“If cookies were the currency before, the gold is that relationship with that consumer and building that relationship,” says Jason White, SVP and Head of Publishers, LiveRamp.

And that’s exactly why LiveRamp built their Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS), to enable publishers to continue to perform data-driven targeting in a cookieless world.

I had a deep-dive discussion about publisher first-party authentication strategies with White and Chris Pirrone, VP & General Manager, USA TODAY Sports Media Group, where they discussed the importance of publishers growing their addressable inventory and how they can better communicate the value exchange to their audiences to build trusted relationships that can be leveraged for authentication — and ultimately grow revenue. (To hear the full conversation, click here.)

Growing Addressable Inventory

Lynne d Johnson: Should publishers be looking at growing their addressable inventory as part of their direct sales and first-party data strategies?

Chris Pirrone: Yes, developing strategies where publishers are engaged with consumers on a more intimate level, where pubs are providing audiences with some kind of service, content, or product that drives users to engage, and in exchange, the user is willing to provide personal information—email address, interests, and things like that—I think it has always been a smart strategy for publishers. 

It’s become more intense recently because the third-party cookie is going to dissipate and therefore publishers and marketers can’t rely on third-party cookies or third-party data any longer. Publishers that have a history of requiring users to sign in because they’ve offered some benefit in exchange for signing in are ahead of the game. For publishers who haven’t had to implement this, it’s going to be even more important for them to begin creating those products because data-driven and programmatic advertising dollars are at risk.

Without third-party cookies driving targeted advertising—publishers that don’t have a strategy to drive user authentication and first-party data, should expect lower CPMs and less revenue. This is why we’ve tried to partner with platforms like LiveRamp to create ideas that drive: 

1. More authentication, more sign-in, and then, 
2. How do we turn those authenticated users into ad dollars that are going to help us pay for content creation and to provide valuable experiences and information to users?

Jason White: We’re empowering folks like Chris, who are spearheading this new wave of authentication. Third-party cookies were a flawed identifier and caused the industry to lose the trust of the consumer.

At the end of the day, this needed to happen. There wasn’t trust. There wasn’t transparency. And GDPR, CCPA, all of these privacy regulations were inflection points that needed to happen for us to build a more trusted ecosystem. Folks like Chris are visionaries in the sense that they understand this and are building strategies around it to grow. We have an opportunity to restore that trust through strong first-party relationships, and as an industry, we should lean into transparency and control for the consumer. 

LdJ: Ok, but what about growing addressable inventory with relation to the open exchange or PMP programmatic strategy — should publishers also do this?

CP: I think the impact is equally important for programmatic. Most publishers are monetizing a significant portion of their inventory through programmatic advertising and open market bidding. If you’re a large-scale publisher, you have too much volume to be able to sell it all directly. If you’re a small-scale publisher, you can’t afford a direct sales team.  

The most successful publishers out there have been able to capitalize on contextual targeting, plus the open programmatic marketplace because those pubs understand how programmatic works, and they have built their ad stacks to drive competition from the demand side. And then the DSPs have come in for marketers, leveraging the marketer’s own data, cookies—and have created bidding strategies that drive ROI for marketers. 

If a publisher can create quality content, engage quality audiences, and build a competent advertising yield set-up, they have had a pretty good solution the last few years. If you’re a trusted quality publisher that creates interesting content that attracts quality audiences that want to stay on your site, then you’ve been in a pretty good spot with direct sales, and quality advertisers leveraging open programmatic, to fill your inventory.

What we’ve seen with some of the browsers that already deprecated cookies is that CPMs fall significantly. If marketers don’t know anything about these users based on third-party tracking and cookies, they’re less willing to bid higher or spend to reach those users. If they’re not able to retarget or frequency cap, all these tactics that DSPs have built successful ROI models around, it has a big impact on programmatic CPMs and it’s going to have a big impact on publisher businesses going forward.

JW: Google put out a great study in August  2019, before the IAB came out with Project Rearc. Google ran tests showing that the median CPM was going to decrease by 64%, and we’ve seen that in working with some of our publishers.

What we got in front of, in beginning to bring ATS to bear more than four years ago, was getting more marketers bidding on Identity Link (IDL). We already work with the top 400 marketers on activation and measurement, leveraging our identity solution. This is the next step—being able to reach customers and measure on IDL. 

The most important thing to help folks like Chris with now is analytics. We have models to help them understand in an A/B testing environment: What does it mean from a CPM perspective? How many more dollars am I capturing from those campaigns buying on IDL? What’s the bounce rate? How much more revenue did I make to offset that bounce rate? And am I positive, and in the green? If I’m in the green, let’s get a little more aggressive—maybe we ask for email earlier in the session. 

One of the things we’ve seen from our studies on cookie syncs is the match rate on the publisher side is in the 30-35% range. The marketers talk to the DMP, which connects to the DSP, then the SSP. And each of those systems has its own definition of identity (as a cookie) so each sync creates a ton of data loss. 

The reality is, we think about an amount of 30% authentications for publishers will yield the same if not better results in terms of addressable reach for marketers 1p/2p/3p audiences. When users authenticate, it’s more efficient than a cookie and with LiveRamp, those cookie syncs become irrelevant.

Are Buyers on Board?

LdJ: One of the big questions I’m hearing from publishers is they want to know if the buyers will be there?

CP: It’s a chicken-and-egg issue. Publishers will implement solutions where they can attract dollars. Over the last few years, publishers have seen shifts in ad spend from open programmatic to programmatic direct deals to now programmatic guaranteed. As soon as the marketers invested in those new channels, publishers siloed quality inventory and started to segment out their inventory to support the demand-side strategies. And they’ll do the same thing here with authentication and first-party data.

Publishers suddenly have an advantage with authentication and first-party data because we are offering something to marketers that they can't easily get elsewhere.

JW: Oh they’re there. It’s all about scale. We’ve had a good chunk of our 400 marketers active in 2020. Moreso in the past quarter because we’re integrated with The Trade Desk. And it’s a virtuous cycle that Chris is talking about, more dollars in, more publishers in, more publishers get authentication, it enables marketers to put more of their budgets towards campaigns based on authentications.

We’ve got case studies where marketers like Fitbit have seen 2X ROAS. That’s incredible because they’re reaching individual users. So we’re seeing more repeat marketers put dollars in quarter over quarter. We’ve got over 340 global publishers signed or live—65% of the Comscore 50, 70% of the Comscore 20; the big publishers are leaning in. The rest of the publishers are working to catch up. 

CP:  Publishers suddenly have an advantage with authentication and first-party data because we are offering something to marketers that they can’t easily get elsewhere. An issue arises for publishers with lower return visitors or when significant traffic comes from search or social shares, where a user is referred and seeking a single piece of content, and then they exit after consuming that piece. Authenticating these users is difficult and requires a dedicated strategy to get somebody to sign in when they may only want that one piece of information.

But there are different methods we can implement to help, and LiveRamp has written a Playbook that we contributed to. How can we, as Publishers, start to convert some of these visitors into dedicated users who will provide their first-party data or even zero-party data? Zero-party data is the next step to deeper engagement, where users voluntarily tell you their interests and what they like, so pubs can build up our data segments to be more knowledgeable about our most valuable customers. 

JW: This is where having a CRM expert comes into play—they’ve been doing this on the marketer’s side for years. They understand cohorts, who are the most valuable consumers we have and we need to tailor our messages (and our spending) accordingly based on who we are trying to acquire. You’re now seeing agencies hire heads of identity and even Gannett has a head of identity. 

These experts will start building these databases and look at people coming in to consume one piece of content or two pieces and say, “How valuable is that content? Let’s score that content. Is it extremely valuable? What’s the bounce rate?” If it’s small, they could put up a paywall for that type of user before they access the content because they know the content is extremely valuable for that individual user. This is taking the publisher paradigm to the next level—where they are going to have to think more like a marketer. 

Small or Large Pub, It Really Doesn’t Matter

LdJ: Large-scale sites like Chris’ have a lot of authenticated traffic and might be thinking they can go at this alone, are they thinking right about this? Also, what about smaller pubs that might be afraid they won’t have enough scale?

JW: This isn’t just a big publisher solution. Small publishers can play here as well.

It’s important to note that for the bigger publishers that think that they can go at it on their own, they need to think like marketers. Marketers face the same kind of constraints of working through roadmaps and only having a certain amount of resources to get those roadmaps completed. They’re thinner margin businesses. And on their side of the equation, they only have a certain amount of buyers. They’re only going to be able to work with this walled garden or that walled garden, and then everybody else. If a publisher is big enough, they could do a big thing with a music player or social media property, but the reality is they’re going to be stretched thin and nobody else is going to be able to use their data. 

What marketers want is the same thing they get from the walled gardens. It’s simple to buy an ad on a walled garden—your mother can buy an ad on Facebook. So let’s not make the open web complicated, let’s make it just as easy. Someone can go into a DSP and get access to the entire open web. Marketers want to connect with their consumers across publisher sites— whether through open exchange or private marketplace deals. Marketers don’t want to do 1,000+ direct deals, they want to be able to buy their audiences at scale. This is why publishers need to integrate with a neutral identity infrastructure but retain control over which marketers and platforms can access their data. 

CP: We have audience scale, but there’s still a hurdle to getting someone to take out their credit card for a subscription or to authenticate. When larger publishers drive significant traffic from search or social shares, those users generally visit focused on a specific piece of content and are unauthenticated. And so the question for pubs is how do you select a point in the user journey on your site to convert a visitor to a declared sign-in visitor? Publishers must get creative and think of ways to get visitors to lean in. 

And if you’re a small verticalized publisher, you’re going to need to implement some of the same things we are as a larger publisher—the same engagement tactics and authentication methods and strategies. Which parts of your site/content/products are most valuable for users? 

Tips For Increasing User Authentications

LdJ: For publishers looking to increase authentications, what are some strategies that you recommend they test? 

CP: It depends on where you believe your strengths are. Why are consumers coming to your site? How do they find you? The people that are sticking around and consuming additional content, why are they doing so? If you can start to analyze and dissect that, I think it’s going to lead you to strategies and tactics that you can implement that are going to help you drive authentication. 

Our well over 200+ local properties are important for helping local audiences find news and information. The local properties provide unique information, reporting, and coverage that is very distinct and valuable. To provide additional value to consumers, we may also create events that drive local engagement. Because we’re a trusted local voice, audiences are more likely to perceive a value-exchange that leads to authentication or a subscription. 

But even if you are not focused on local information, there are other ways you can start to build engagement—giveaways, events, even partnering with marketers to provide sweepstakes, or creating fun games that people can play online. Can we create valuable products and reasonable engagement points in a user visit where people are willing to sign-in to access this information? These are just slight tweaks where you already have a relationship with the audience, but now how do you drive deeper engagement and get those passionate audiences to authenticate.

Newsletters are certainly really important. Those are your most dedicated fans who have declared that they want to hear from you on a regular basis. Another method is article commenting. There was a time when publishers said it’s too hard to control comments so let’s push it to the social platforms. The truth is, commenters are generally the highest engaged users who want to have a conversation or provide a point of view. Why not let them do that on your site by first requiring authentication, plus drive additional user engagement and thoughtful conversation by having editorial people participate and engage in the discussion? That is going to drive more people to sign up so they can participate in message boards or comments. 

How about calendaring applications? We are all busy, and if you analyze events and the sports cycle, there are almost too many daily games to track. It’s hard to follow who is playing and when. Offering a calendar service for a user to download their favorite team’s schedule will remind them of important events or moments, and you can also update the calendar event with valuable data, information and include links back to your site that has content about the event, analysis, and previews.

Additionally, one thing I think we can generally do better as an industry is to improve the user experience around requesting user sign-in and building trust with consumers.

Are your users interested in alerts, updates, or real-time scoring? Those are some of the things just about every publisher can do to create value and incentivize a user to sign-in for a valuable service. I approach this from a sport’s fan’s perspective, but there are a lot of different and nuanced tricks of the trade to provide user value and help drive audiences to give you their information.

Additionally, one thing I think we can generally do better as an industry is to improve the user experience around requesting user sign-in and building trust with consumers. If the user experience is similar across trusted digital publishers—with authentication requests looking the same, having the same verbiage and color scheme, and requesting the same type of information in the same manner across trusted publishers—that builds consumer confidence. But if I have to go and sign in at each and every website I visit, and each requires different data points from me, and the UX is a different experience, it starts to build confusion and mistrust. If we collaborate industry-wide and start using the same methods for asking for audience permission, I think that’s going to allow consumers to feel more trusting and willing to provide their information.

LdJ: What should publishers be watching for as they’re thinking about increasing authentications without negatively impacting consumer experience?

JW: It’s the value exchange. Are you providing something of value? Earlier we talked about scoring content and assigning value for it. We’ve got data showing that addressable Safari inventory can yield up to 300-350% higher CPMs than cookieless inventory. Once a publisher sees value, the next question is, “How can I make this the most relevant experience for that consumer and provide them with the incentive to give me that information? If I don’t then they’re going to bounce.”

So make sure you’re dialed into that when you deploy these authentication strategies. Provide them with as many options to make it easy, ask them to sign in with their email address or social sign-in. But let’s make it consistent as Chris talked about earlier.

CP: If you can create a frictionless and seamless sign-in experience. Step 1—remember me when I return to your site. Or, for example, if a user clicks on a hyperlink to a publisher site and has already downloaded the publisher’s mobile app, the user should be linked directly into the app so they are seamlessly redirected to the mobile experience. That user is likely to stay longer and consume more content. If it’s a difficult experience and every time I visit I hit a blocker requiring me to reauthenticate and re-sign-in, I won’t stay and am unlikely to return. 

Publishers must work extremely hard with our internal product teams and the UX teams to make sure that we’re providing a great experience. As Jason said, figure out where in the user experience there is an engagement point that we can ask for authentication. An important key is remembering a returning user when they visit across multiple devices and don’t block them the next time they visit, because they’ve already signed up. We are going to quickly see who’s successful at identifying their repeat users and who isn’t. 

I believe publishers need to work together to share best practices for optimal user experiences, so we build back trust with consumers. Only then will audiences be more willing to provide their personal data because they know it’s being used to help pay for quality experiences and content.

The post How USA TODAY Sports Is Developing First-Party Authentication Strategies for Building Consumer Trust appeared first on AdMonsters.

“The CPRA was put forward by the people behind the CCPA, with the goal of bridging the gap between the CCPA and GDPR,” Jessica B. Lee, Partner, Co-Chair, Privacy, Security & Data Innovations at Loeb & Loeb LLP and Chapter Chair, OneTrust PrivacyConnect, told attendees at AdMonsters recent Publisher Forum. 

“CCPA does give consumers some rights and has some business obligations, but it’s really a law focused on third-party data sharing. And if you look at GDPR, it’s much more encompassing than that. CPRA bridges that gap,” she shared.

Lee went on to explain six key points that folks in ad tech should know about CPRA in terms of the rights that it offers consumers, as well as what it will mean for digital media and advertising. Her slide on CPRA is probably one of the most concise explanations we’ve seen of the regulation to date.

The post CPRA Is Here…Here’s What You Need To Know appeared first on AdMonsters.