Internet Bubble(Wrap) or The Internet Bubble…No, Not That Kind.

The question which has not been asked (and I will answer) is why does any raw data need to exist in the digital world?

“How is the internet going to pay for itself?”

…as The Trade Desk CEO and Co-Founder Jeff Green remarked in The New York Times article recently, analyzing that decades-old question. Traditional tracking mechanisms are going to be, or have threatened to be deprecated. No less critical is the value exchange discussion over consumers volunteering an ID where a publisher makes money without compensation to the individual. Privacy concerns over use of PII are high.

These are all important issues and questions to raise..but are they the right questions?

If cookies go away, why do we care?

They go away in weeks if not days anyway. If MAIDs go away, why do we care? All the power was with 2 companies, that is not a long term strategy for success.

If I browse the web and unknowingly share cookie info, is that fair to me? If I open an app and unknowingly share an ad ID, is that fair to me? A fair question is about the voluntary nature of sharing even non-identifiable data, and what consumers gain from the value they create. These are more legitimate questions, but all other things, such as privacy/security being equal, most consumers demonstrate that they would rather have a mostly free internet than have to pay for surfing the web.

From a consumer perspective, the cookie and MAID scenarios are largely involuntary and could also be irrelevant if Google and Apple proceed on their announced courses. However, the volunteering of PII, namely an email, is uniquely a consumer decision. Whether signing up for a subscription or gaining ad hoc access to content, I am choosing to submit my email. Maybe it’s a dummy email, maybe I don’t check my Lycos email that often (sorry, guys), but at least I am choosing.

Some Good News

If the currency of the internet is a value exchange between consumers providing information and advertisers selling us things with the publisher in the middle, then we need to figure out how to make it work. If you believe you should be compensated when a publisher or advertiser makes money based on your digital behavior to sell you things…that is fair. If you are worried that your email, password and viewing/buying habits could be leaked out on the internet (as they have been many, many…many times) then I have some good news. That doesn’t have to happen.

So let’s get to the question which has not been asked.

Why does any raw data or data in the clear need to exist in the digital world? If the main concern for all (and I mean consumers, Europe and California mostly) is the exposure of PII, then take that off the table. Technology is available to-day (from Nth Party!) which can “bubble wrap” the internet and allow it to function as it does today without raw data living in 3rd party platforms, exposed to publishers or advertisers. One of the of the biggest players in the industry still requires data to be decrypted in the onboarding process. Heck, they were even happy to announce the process was awarded a patent! How can we move forward if those who are supposed to keep data private are exposing and commingling raw PII?

Right now contextual advertising is having a resurgence. I think we all need to answer this question honestly: Is this because our digital ecosystem works better with less data or is it because advertisers, agencies and publishers are using outdated technology? Given a 100% privacy-safe solution, wouldn’t advertisers prefer to leverage 1P data? Wouldn’t publishers get better CPMs by matching to advertiser IDs? Yes and yes. Multi Party Computation (MPC) is the best method to release the power of the data collected by the stakeholders in our ecosystem.

How it works: Leave your keys at home.

Unified IDs are not addressing the core issue. Encryption does.

Properly encrypted data (not hashes, but real cryptography like MPC) can move data seamlessly through the adtech/martech ecosystem making PII actionable, but also impenetrable. There is no need to make choices between different types of synthetic IDs to replace cookies and MAIDs. Our effort should be focused on deploying the latest technology to ensure the anonymity of PII while still allowing consumers, advertisers and publishers to utilize it in a safe and efficient manner.

Some final questions for thought:
1. Do I care if I upload my email and a publisher makes money off of it? Yes, but again, I can make that value judgement for myself based on the content I receive.

2. Do I care if there is a chance that my PII is leaked in a data hack? Absolutely, but if the proper encryption technology is deployed by advertisers, publishers and platforms, this does not need to be a concern.

Let’s focus on moving the ball forward.