3 ways to protect user data privacy in programmatic advertising

Programmatic advertising and the entire digital advertising landscape continue to evolve in response to the growing demand for user data privacy and control. The accelerated pace of breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cybersecurity events makes data privacy concerns top of mind for consumers, and corporations are facing the heat when it comes to protecting user data.

With most companies now considering cybersecurity a business risk, programmatic advertisers are left wondering how to protect both user data and their bottom lines while relying on consumer data for targeted campaigns.

User data protection and programmatic campaigns

Programmatic advertisers face the dual challenge of remaining competitive in targeted campaigns while maintaining user data protection. But changes to data privacy regulations, browser prioritizations, and the frequency of security breaches have made the process of protecting user data even more complex to navigate.

It’s no secret that consumer data can boost campaign performance and help your organization create more meaningful interactions with your customers. But bad actors in the industry have found themselves in hot water over data sale violations and insecure ads that resulted in malware incidents and data breaches.

Both publishers and advertisers can benefit from additional security measures. The bottom line: When consumer privacy isn’t a priority each party faces financial and legal repercussions.

How to protect user data

Over the years, we’ve seen a growing list of government actions and regulatory measures targeting the collection, use, and sale of consumer data, including GDPR legislation in the EU and California’s CCPA regulation.

As you form partnerships to gain insights into second- and third-party consumer data, it’s vital to work with organizations that have a solid understanding of data integrity.

Data sits at the heart of programmatic advertising, so your company needs to determine how to maintain compliance while leveraging data to create meaningful connections with customers.

Arity has compiled 3 best practices to help programmatic advertisers improve user data protection:

#1 Shield location data through encryption

Safeguarding location data is table stakes in today’s digital climate. More than ever, advertisers and publishers must do everything possible to ensure user location data is protected and not shared or sold at an individually identifiable level.

The use of an encrypted hard drive can help protect location data as well as other types of consumer information — especially when uploading data to the cloud. When data is encrypted, ordinary text or numbers are scrambled into “cipher text,” which is an unreadable format. This preserves the privacy of digital data that is either stored on computer systems or sent across a network.

#2 Maintain privacy standards amid cookie deprecation

Third-party cookie deprecation is never far from programmatic advertisers’ minds. Although Google initially delayed the removal of third-party cookies from its Chrome browser, programmatic advertisers need to come to terms with the reality of a post-cookie world.

Cookie deprecation protects consumer data privacy, but it also forces advertisers to adopt strategies other than cookie-based targeting. These strategies may include using your own consumer touchpoints to collect first-party data, creating partnerships to leverage second-party data, and experimenting with contextual and interest-based advertising.

It’s all too easy to let privacy standards slip as you scramble to find a replacement for cookies. As you form partnerships to gain insights into second- and third-party consumer data, it’s vital to work with organizations that have a solid understanding of data integrity.

#3 Stay up-to-date on data privacy regulations

One of the easiest ways to maintain user data privacy is by ensuring your organization and its employees stay informed about the current laws and regulations governing privacy. New legislation and changes to existing laws require organizations to scrutinize their best practices and security measures with integrity for data safety.

Hiring a data compliance officer can help ensure all practices meet and exceed legal requirements when it comes to consumer protection. Not only do consumers benefit from advanced privacy scrutiny — maintaining compliance with regulatory bodies can help prevent data leaks and lawsuits from a potential mishandling of user data.

Other ways to keep employees in the loop about user data privacy include:

• Hosting a privacy awareness training program
• Publishing corporate informational guides with current legal requirements to protecting user data
• Informing all employees about legal changes that impact company policies and practices

Marketing Solutions by Arity

Interested in how Arity’s marketing solutions can help optimize your programmatic spend without sacrificing data privacy? At Arity, we help organizations achieve successful campaigns while keeping consumer privacy top of mind.

Contact us today to start a conversation about how Arity can help optimize your programmatic advertising program.