How we got here: Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the federal government has turned its eye to the advertising industry, where a series of high-profile incidents exposing women seeking abortions have highlighted just how detailed the information is that advertisers collect on citizens.
- The crackdown on data privacy comes at a tricky time for the ad industry, which still hasn’t found a suitable replacement for Apple’s Identifier for Advertisers or the upcoming deprecation of third-party cookies. Those changes have cost companies like Meta billions in lost ad revenues and led to widespread advertising layoffs despite an overall increase in US jobs.
- One solution to the changing privacy landscape has been anonymized data. Privacy-oriented data sets have become a key point of distinction for companies trying to snag market share like NBCUniversal and others, and are sought out by advertisers looking to comply with regulatory standards.
- But there’s doubt about just how anonymous that anonymized data truly is. In 2019, a European study found that it was able to accurately identify users from anonymized data based on just a handful of geographic indicators.
Attempts to skirt around changing standards have ended poorly. Meta’s latest fire to put out is a class-action lawsuit that emerged after it was revealed the company was injecting tracking code into its in-app browsers in order to circumvent Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency policy—another change that has damaged advertising effectiveness.
The big takeaway: Legislation for privacy reform has bipartisan support, even if it leaves loopholes for law enforcement. As litigation stacks up and privacy becomes a more fraught public issue, a crucial legal decision looms on the horizon that will affect the future of digital advertising.