Wanna be seen as a kewl kid in the online ad world? Use the word ‘privacy’ in a sentence when you’re talking about online advertising.
It’s getting to the point where it’s hard to tell which of the massive platforms which depend on mining of user data is now – suddenly – the most concerned about user welfare.
And that’s without questioning the sincerity of those concerns.
All this jockeying has an impact on political ad sales because – rightly or wrongly – using commercially available data to target voters rests on the privacy-violating tools that the platforms have been using for the past 15 years.
There’s also a little bit of posturing going on here in anticipation of government regulation of the tech world. Appearing to care about users – known as consumers in the antitrust world – helps big tech companies argue that they’re not all that bad.
The lead dog here is Apple which has – on many levels – gone to war with Facebook over the manipulation of user data. As New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin put it a few years ago “Apple cares about your privacy and it wants you to know it cares about your privacy. ”
With its most recent set of software upgrades on phones, tablets and desktop devices, Apple has dramatically reduced ad targeting ability. No more device ID tracking.
Then we have Google. Google’s using privacy talk to move away from the use of cookie tracking in its ad sales. But the resulting confluence of targeting techniques is, well, mind-boggling. It will be especially – maybe even impossible – if you’re running a small campaign.
There are some attempts at less confusing work-arounds, which may sound really good to political folks since they rely on email addresses and implied consent. But the privacy Gods, in this case, Google, aren’t happy.
And there are lots of people who are happy to point out that Google’s ideas about privacy may be good for Google but not so much for the users from whom it profits.
This is, as we used to say, breaking news. Lots more to come so we’ll point you to a source we like a lot: DigiDay’s privacy round-up of stories. It’s about as comprehensive as anyone can be right now and it’s being added to as things develop.
Digiday makes a good point in its stories: Platforms, not lawmakers are leading the way on privacy. But that doesn’t mean there’s no activity.
Across the country, states have teed up online privacy legislation. Oklahoma, Florida, Virginia, Washington and Connecticut all considered – or actually passed – legislation this year. That comes after California enacted and started enforcing privacy rules for its residents.
So, naturally, there’s a federal privacy bill kicking around. How that fares in the larger conversations about breaking up Big Tech, suing Big Tech, regulating Big Tech – the list goes on – is anyone’s guess. But it’s safe to say there will be something.
Okay, so what’s next. Short answer: Your guess is as good as ours.
What we do know is that starting in January 2022 – right on time for the Midterm elections – the online ad world will be in a state of flux. Whether that flux turns to turmoil remains to be seen.
Naturally, we have thoughts on all this. One: Look longer and harder at buying direct from local news publishers who are looking to capture political ad dollars and may well use these market adjustments to curtail access.
Spot-On’s new Pinpoint Persuasion ad buying platform make direct buying easy and clear. Drop us a note and we’ll show you what we can do to help navigate through the year – and beyond.