Industry thought leaders share their views on data privacy on the occasion of World Data Privacy Day on 28 January.
Data Privacy Day is an international event that occurs every year on 28 January. The purpose of Data Privacy Day is to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices. It is currently observed in the United States, Canada, Nigeria, Israel and 47 European countries.
Industry thought leaders share their views on data privacy on the occasion of World Data Privacy Day.
“Data privacy continues to be a key factor for the advertising industry, as it is seen as the main driver behind tougher browser restrictions and the demise of the third-party cookie. However, instead of waiting for the digital giants to force its hand on changes, the industry should instead take proactive steps towards creating a more privacy-compliant ad landscape.
“This will not be an easy, one-solution-fits-all fix, but a continuous process, involving greater collaboration, to create an interoperable digital ecosystem, based on first-party data. Ultimately this will be a positive step for the industry, creating a better digital environment for brands and consumers.”
David Berkowitz, SVP Corporate Marketing & Comms at Mediaocean
“With ongoing discussions around the deprecation of third party cookies, how tech-giants handle data, and changes to international regulations and laws like GDPR, it’s safe to say that the conversation around data and privacy is louder and more urgent than ever before.
“Data privacy day serves as a timely reminder that advertisers, publishers, and adtech providers have clear responsibilities when it comes to transacting with data. Vigilance and consent are vital across the entire supply chain, and keeping this top of mind will ensure that all parties remain legally compliant and consumer-focused.
“Digital out of home (DOOH) advertising, powered by programmatic buying, is uniquely positioned in this data privacy centric era as it leverages user behaviors at a large scale to connect brands with audiences at scale, also known as ‘one-to-many’ targeting. Instead of relying on deterministic matching or first-party IDs, programmatic DOOH uses modeling of probabilistic, historical mobile location data, thereby facilitating GDPR compliance. Advertisers are increasingly waking up to DOOH’s potential as an alternative to one-to-one targeting channels. That said, it remains key that the DOOH industry maintains a transparent, compliance-focused approach to data management, and a watchful eye on ongoing regulatory changes.”
Louis-Philippe Denis, Chief Legal & Privacy Officer, Hivestack
“As consumer data becomes increasingly protected, we’ll start to see marketers prioritise methods that drive performance for brands and ad relevance for consumers without the use of personal identifiers. One such option is AI-driven predictive modelling – using consented first-party data and integrating this with third-party data to create privacy-friendly contextual media buy recommendations. Advertisers should look to work with partners that can utilise their data insights and predictive capabilities in this way; ultimately aiding brand building, as well as improving business outcomes in a way that respects the consumer.”
Leonard Newnham, Chief Data Scientist at LoopMe
In recent years, data privacy compliance has become a critical consideration driving critical business decisions as companies look to digitally transform. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities continue to increase as companies grow their digital footprints due to the massive amounts of data being generated. The Data Privacy Day comes as a reminder for organizations to assess their cyber risks and ensure strong data privacy protections are in place but in such a way that will not impede innovation within the digital economy. Due to the increasing complexity of data flows, enterprises need to evolve past securing data at rest to a posture of continuous governance where all data is protected.
Increasingly, we are seeing enterprises place, manage and analyze data at the edge, closer to their users, services and clouds. Meanwhile, concerns over the security and privacy of data in movement and/or in the cloud have also increased. This situation is more critical in Asia-Pacific and has driven the need for better technology and infrastructure solutions that improve data accessibility, security and control, while also meeting increasing data privacy requirements. It is a balancing act.
At Equinix, we support many of the largest enterprises in the world. Through our Equinix Privacy Office, we proactively manage our own compliance with applicable new and evolving data privacy laws and seek to assist customers to do the same. Our data security practices and controls around our own global platform of systems and processes are robust. Our digital services like Network Edge and a rich set of security-focused partners in our ecosystem, which sets up these security services closer to the user to protect that data locally. Our goal is to embed the concept of privacy by design into new system deployments and business process improvements across various aspects of our business, as well as offer our clients systems and infrastructure they can rely on.
Peter Waters, Chief Privacy Officer, Equinix
