Explaining Privacy Changes in Cookieless Marketing, Email, & Opt-Out Tracking

In the new world of Web 3.0, users are taking more control as the technology stack becomes more resilient, decentralized and secure. Many of the world’s leaders and leading tech companies, such as the EU, Google, and Apple, are taking steps to support this new future. For companies trying to find new customers, this may feel like a step backward to the old days of “spray and pray,” where marketing and advertising dollars were unable to tie back to a key performance indicator (KPI). We are here to tell you there are still many effective ways to optimize your dollars and find the customers you want to have discovering, purchasing and reviewing your products.

1st vs. 3rd-Party Data

This is data collected on a customer through linking of Personal Identifiable Information (PII), such as email, phone number, first & last name and hashing of credit card used. This data is then collated based on this individual and used in numerous marketing campaigns & strategies.

Consent Management for Cookies & Tracking

Several nations and businesses have expressed concern about the collection and use of customer data. Consent has been demanded by consumers regarding the use and collection of such data to protect their privacy. Nations have enacted laws in response to this demand, and many businesses have enacted legal requirements. Those with a higher moral and ethical fiber have further expanded this practice.

In many of these laws, such as GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation – EU) and the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act – USA), consent is required for the collection, use, and sale of personal information.

This does not just apply to cookies, but also applies to tracking information on third-party tools like Google Analytics, selling of email capture lists, or even serving relevant ads in affiliate programs. Tools such as OneTrust provide cookie consent and other consent compliance practices, like data request management. Companies have included the ability to enforce these rights in their tools.is vein, vein, Google has  cookie consent to enforce Google Tag Manager code, and Apple that surfaces per-app Opt-In for any App or In-App-Ad that is tracking data on your interactions.

https://www.onetrust.com/

(read other article on “how does a cookie work” – see below)

Traditional 3rd-Party Audiences

The key to many advertising campaign successes has been tied back to the amount of data that can be collected from multiple sources and collated/modeled into usable targeting groups. This means that a social media provider can combine data from multiple sources and sell it to advertisers by allowing them to target their ads to users they want to convert. 

However, this has historically forced advertisers to include tracking on their websites as well, leading to more sellable data. It also can lead to inequity if used to target for bias and exclusionary reasons. Furthermore, this data is also combined with data on the social platform itself, allowing the tool in the best sense to provide personalized content that is relevant, or at the worst provide data that is misinformation or used to elicit a response.

Here is an outline of the basic process of 3rd-party cookie collection and consolidation with a Social Network Identifier (SN-ID) in a cookie:

Email Tracking Anonymization with Apple

Apple has taken steps to give their customers even more privacy by taking the data points and pings that email providers use to track interactions and anonymizing them.

Some businesses have seen the inability to optimize campaigns based on when they sell over multiple time-zones or when they have a variety of products where customers have different key interaction times. Key metrics that show high-level performance on emails, such as open rate, are also rendered obsolete.

Hight-Level Goals:

1. Anonymize the IP address of the customer who opens emails (Identifies one user over another)
2. Pre-Cache email assets/content so customers activates are concealed (open-rate, open-time, geo-location)
3. Give customer an email address that is not directly linked to them (jane.done@gmail.com is now apples523684q86q846@apple.com) 

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-mail-privacy-protection-iphf084865c7/ios

Why Now?

• Because Apple devices account for 52% of email opening and they just can make that change on a whim ^{*according to Litmus}
• To make good on their promise to protect the consumer’s privacy

Other Tracking Updates with Apple

Apple has also taken further steps to expire all cookies with a new max expiration date. For first-party cookies, they will auto-expire after 24 hours. All other data is now purged after 30 days automatically. Additionally, they are adding more options in their Apps for consumers to prevent tracking unless they Opt-In on iOS devices via a prompt.

High-Level Goals:

1. Protect users information from malicious storage or negligence
2. Allow users to have more control over their tracking in iOS applications
3. Set standard data expiration dates on stored data

Be Better On:

1. Transparency
2. Data Storage
3. Tracking Opt-In

Anonymous 3rd Party Audience with Google

Google has taken steps to honor the anonymity / privacy of the user while providing data to businesses for marketing purposes. Examples of this would be FloC and Fledge (yes, they are named in an avian fashion!). 

Some small businesses find this difficult as newer brands may not reach the capacity requirements of users or conversion to be able to receive and act on this data. Larger organizations who have optimized to be more nimble and “in the movement” may find that this data comes back at a slower pace.

high-Level Goals:

The browser, not the advertiser, holds the information about what the advertiser thinks a person is interested in.

Advertisers can serve ads based on an interest, but cannot combine that interest with other identifying information about the person—such as who they are or what page they are visiting.

Websites the person visits, and the ad networks those sites use, cannot learn about their visitors’ ad interests.

Ads can only be shown if a significantly larger group is logged to prevent micro-targeting = anonymizing your identity within a crowd.

Be Better On:

1. Interest-based advertising
2. Audience creation
3. Conversion measurement
4. Ad fraud prevention
5. Anti-fingerprinting

https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/2021-01-privacy-sandbox/

Facebook and Google Ads Verification

Major advertising networks have taken further steps to ensure that not only are they quality and qualified advertising providers, but that if there are issues that arise from advertisements  there is an audit trail connected. 

Some less respectable advertisers see this as a roadblock when needing an official business, contactable party and registration to be confirmed before ads can run.

High-Level Goals:

1. Combat “Fake News” shared on site
2. Cannot share links from ads that are not Verified Domains
3. Ties in deeper political ad approvals
4. Prevents misleading consumers

Be Better On:

1. Transparency of messaging
2. Cracking down on misleading information
3. Spoofing Elimination
4. Extended Audit Trails

Keep Reading Related Posts

1. How Does a Digital Cookie Work?
2. General Rights & Types of Consumer Data That Need Protecting
3. Best Marketing Strategy with Privacy Changes in Cookieless, Emails, and Opt-Out Tracking.