The Future of Data in a Privacy-First World: The Highlights
Published: August 28, 2020
Author: Lauren Laub
This week, 3Qers Julie Honor, General Counsel, and Feliks Malts, VP of Decision Sciences, sat down with Jon Frankel, Shareholder at ZwillGen, to discuss the future of data in a privacy-first world. Here are highlights from their webinar (which you can watch on demand here).
Privacy Practices: Compliance in Today’s Landscape
Julie discussed the current regulations and their practical implications and requirements (while noting that this is not professional legal advice).
These days, using data to build out your marketing program is essential, but you cannot do this at the expense of your customers’ privacy. Julie explained that marketers need to plan for a data landscape that accommodates the needs of advertising while respecting customers’ rights and privacy. She explored the spider web of privacy-touching laws and briefly touched on two key laws: GDPR and CCPA.
Here is what the current legal landscape looks like:
As you can see, the data privacy legal landscape can be quite overwhelming. Julie summarized it as this: depending on your business, business relationships, industry, locations, etc., various laws and regulations will govern the manner in which your business interacts with various data points. When thinking about data privacy, it is essential to understand your specific landscape. Some of the most important legislations that currently exist are the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA).
Here is a quick glance at the GDPR and CCPA regulations:
Julie briefly explained the differences between these two important laws and how crucial it is to have a full understanding of the data your business has and how each of those data points is going to be used. If you do not have a full understanding of the data being collected, you will not be able to properly evaluate it with respect to privacy compliance.
Once you have identified each of your data points, you need to go deeper and understand all facets of the data. Julie suggests starting with this data mapping exercise:
Once you have understood all parts of your data and completed the data mapping exercise, what do you do? Julie suggests taking these steps:
Public-Facing Steps:
- Update your privacy policies
- Publish your privacy policies
- Prepare your requests
Internal Steps:
- Engage in substantive conversations with your internal teams and external partners
- Revise your contract templates
- Use data-related addenda where necessary
- Train your teams
Above and beyond all the tactical advice, Julie strongly recommends partnering with a privacy lawyer who understands your business model!
Future Regulations and Ripple Effects
Jon discussed the future of regulations and governance as the election approaches.
There are a few important laws regarding privacy that could be voted on this fall, including: California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (CPRA, CCPA 2.0), AB 1281: CCPA Amendment Bill, and Maine’s Privacy Law.
Jon also went into detail about Federal Privacy Bills that have already been introduced in the 2019-2020 session. The three most recent, comprehensive bills include: Data Accountability and Transparency Act of 2020 (DATA 2020), Consumer Data Privacy and Security Act of 2020, and the Federal Data Protection Act of 2020.
Despite all these bills, data privacy has yet to become a main issue in the upcoming election. Jon explained that if the Democrats take the Senate, there’s a chance for a federal privacy bill or a facial recognition bill. If Congress remains divided, there’s no indication that the status quo will change. Over the years, we have seen data collection and online/social media make huge changes in elections. It will be interesting to see what happens this fall.
Privacy-First Marketing
Feliks tackled the meaty topic of how marketers must prepare for a life without easy attribution of online actions to individuals. He discussed that the combination of the following four factors gives marketers a promising post-cookie future:
In-Channel Evolution
A User ID focus within channels/networks vs. reliance on a brand to track/share gives vendors the ability to tie converters to media exposure more seamlessly.
The vendors are creating new opportunities to ingest conversion data, which will remove the reliance on cookies with solutions such as conversion upload APIs and offline conversion imports.
Identity Resolution and CDP Solutions
A CDP, like Segment or Tealium, enables brands to enrich their user data using their ID unification solutions, which allow re-association of actions of known users to activities completed previously as anonymous users.
Leveraging a 3rd-party identity resolution solution would allow brands to build their own cross-device/browser ID for users across sessions, which can be leveraged for attribution, reporting, and conversion APIs. This solution addresses challenges created with recent browser changes that limit the lifetime of cookies.
MTA and Secured Data Syncs
Trusted unified marketing measurement solutions partners, such as Nielsen (Visual IQ) and Neustar, will benefit from channel relationships that support attributing media exposure to brand customers and converters while keeping privacy a top priority.
This newer solution set will unlock the ability for brands to gain visibility into cross-channel impact while benefiting from incorporating the major platforms’ walled gardens. The solution set will support privacy with performance views provided without exposing user-level data.
Media Mix Modeling
Media mix modeling applies a top-down approach to understand marketing investment performance and optimal budget allocation at a macro level. It provides a cohesive output with insight and opportunities across digital and offline channels that can meaningfully inform annual or semi-annual media budgets and budget allocation.
To watch on demand, click here.
