As USPIRG and CDD told the FTC last month, the growing integration of first and third party data for consumer targeting requires a uniform approach to protect privacy. Entangling a consumer via a host of outside third-party databases used for stealth profiling and targeting is unacceptable–especially when used for financial and health marketing, or targeting youth. Adobe, for example, just announced that it’s “Online Marketing Suite” now incorporates “a wide range of third-party data from providers such as Acxiom (demographics, segmentation and buying behavior), Bizo (business demographics), DataLogix (buying behavior and purchase intent), eXelate (demographics, buying behavior and purchase intent) and TARGUSinfo’s AdAdvisor (demographics, brand preferences, product needs and CRM data).” Adobe also is “partnering with DataXu, InviteMedia, MediaMath and Turn to provide customers with the means to act on valuable audience data. Publishers can deliver larger audiences to advertisers by combining their own ad inventory with inventory acquired through the use of DSP partners.”
Both the Congress, the FTC and the European Commission have to address the growing merging of first and third party data that occurs without a users awareness or informed consent. Meanwhile, ad agencies such as Omnicom have created their own data tracking and targeting services. One executive recently noted that “There’s been increasing momentum in the use of third-party data. It’s a critical element of our stack – to use the right third-party audience intelligence data both for targeting and sometimes more importantly for audience insights post impression delivery. I don’t know the exact percentage, but I would say there are a significant percentage of our impressions that are bought with some form of third party data.“
