The State of Online Privacy

RescueMetrics predicts that 2022 will be the biggest year yet for online privacy. From disruptive changes in regulation and evolving consumer preferences, big tech is under more pressure than ever to help advertisers conform to this ambiguous landscape.

We see these privacy trends pushing along two uncorrelated dimensions. Here’s how RescueMetrics is responding:

One is regulatory (think GDPR and CCPA-type compliance). We’re helping our customers comply with these regulations by natively integrating into their CMP stack and following the policies defined within. We also avoid complicating their data/privacy arrangements by never storing or processing user data ourselves. The information is securely passed directly to the platforms they are already using. This means they will already be covered by their public privacy policies and data processing agreements.

The second trend is somewhat arbitrary - and technologically driven. It’s a technocratic war with advertisers caught in the middle, and consumers dealing with the fallout of poor advertising experiences.

What’s important to acknowledge first is that the data being collected is very low on the potential harm index. It is generally benign, anonymised, and aggregated within the platforms. It’s not people’s social security numbers; it’s simple behavioural/buying data that lets advertisers know what’s working at what isn’t - so budgets can be allocated efficiently. Businesses without big budgets to blow need this in order to advertise and grow. It’s their own first-party data, stored within their own secure domain, so they can understand their users.

71% of users prefer tailored advertising. No one wants to be shown repeated ads of things they’ve already brought, or aren’t relevant to them. We also know that most end-users of privacy technologies like adblockers don’t care about sending data to the marketing teams of the brands they choose to interact with. At most, they care about not being shown annoying or intrusive ads.

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RescueMetric’s purpose is to fight for the proven, tangible good of advertisers being equipped with the right data - over the intangible (and vague) idea that Facebook knowing you just bought another pair of shoes from one of their advertisers is bad. We do this while working entirely within (and with) existing and upcoming regulatory policies.

Make no mistake. Brands like Apple are winning PR points in this fight - while Brave is disrupting the existing ecosystem to establish themselves as the biggest player in a new one (while building their own advertising service on the side, we might add).

First-party data is fundamental to how the internet operates. Businesses have a right to know how effective the investments they’ve made in digital marketing have been. RescueMetrics will continue to protect both consumer and business interests while conforming with all evolving privacy regulations.