How are changing data laws affecting online marketing for your business
Privacy laws are getting complicated, and their effects on marketing seem to always be evolving with no clear end in sight. Sometimes it’s hard to know whether data laws are affecting our online marketing efforts. If you fall behind on these changes, your business could suffer—or even face serious risks. So, what key things must you know now that cookies and tracking pixels are a thing of the past?
It’s important to note that we are not lawyers or legal professionals here at TDS, but we can give you the goods when it comes to understanding the landscape of what to expect as we move into a post-pixel world of marketing.
If ‘facebook pixels’ and other scripts don’t work anymore, whats the solution?
Server-Side Tracking:
If pixels are small bits of code that need to ‘load up’ when you go to a website, thereby triggered a message to be sent through your browser to an ad account, then it’s easy to see how the browsers or devices themselves can potentially block this message from being sent if they choose to.
This is essentially what is happening, browsers and devices are blocking pixels from sending data to your ad accounts. That means your ad accounts can’t learn.
These systems block these messages because global laws are increasingly aimed at preventing user data from being shared with third parties without control or consent.
The ability for companies to easily install lots of pixels on their site, and share data to others is cause for concern for the public and their privacy. So many device manufacturers or browser developers take the side of the user and block this data. Server-side tracking allows full consented data capture, which can improve marketing reporting for businesses as there is greater marketing attribution – as seen in this case study.
Meanwhile, from a legal stand-point, no one is trying to stop legitimate businesses collecting consented data on their websites, and using it to market it’s own products. As long as the business collecting the data is following best 1st – party practices.
What’s the solution?
So the solution is to not try and send this message through the browser to an ad account at all. Instead, we could just collect these user behaviours and ‘events’ on our own server. If we can do this, data never needs to be sent to a third party via a browser. It can be collected (assuming our system is set up correctly) on an analytics server, which can be hosted on our company’s domain. This is 1st party data.
For Example…
If I have a cookie company, called ‘markscookies.com’ and I have a little digital bucket for collecting user data at analytics.markscookies.com. Then the transfer of data between the two occur within the confines of my business operations. If I have a consent mechanism for collecting data on my website, and then I use this data to market to people who have interacted with my business, through ads platforms where I have registered the domain markscookies.com. Then the collection and usage of this data is strictly 1st party. I.e. No other business has been given the ability to use, control, augment or monetise this data aside from mine.
This is an over-simplified way of thinking and understanding why 1st party data is important, and the solution is connecting this ‘bucket’ of data at analytics.markscookies.com to the relevant ad accounts through a digital bridge that allows the two platforms to speak with each other. This digital bridge is called a Conversions Application Programming Interface or CAPI for short. This allows ad accounts to receive conversion events from a website without the use of browser based pixels.
This is the future of online marketing.
This is the process of collecting and processing data on your own servers instead of relying on third-party services and traditional pixels. This provides further control over the data you are collecting and using. This is crucial for privacy compliance as it offers adequate data protection solutions.
Why do you actually need this?? And what is the point of data protection?
Over the years data protection and privacy laws have developed massively. These laws form a comprehensive data protection framework which will vary depending on the country you are marketing in, but they all converge basically to the same thing.
‘Stop business sharing data on their users to other 3rd parties without clear consent mechanisms’
In short, data protection encompasses the policies, procedures and technologies in place to safeguard information from unauthorised access, theft, corruption, or loss. It involves a combination of administrative, technical and physical controls. All with the aim of protecting personal, sensitive and biometric data from potential threats. All with the main goal of ensuring information remains secure and private.
Data Protections vs. Data Privacy – Are data laws affecting my marketing?
Although some people believe these are interchangeable there are some key differences. As data protection’s focus is the technical and administrative measures safeguarding data. This falls into encryption, access controls, and data security protocols.
Whereas data privacy concerns an individual’s rights and expectations for when we are collecting, using, and sharing personal data. The individual should control their data and feel confident that their privacy is respected.
This is vital as it allows further insight into managing customer tracking and complying with privacy regulations effectively.
Final notes on first-party data:
As we move away from cookies and pixels and further towards the widespread implementation of First-Party Data laws. It is crucial that all data collected is within a company’s digital ecosystem. This means you collect data directly from your customers through your own channels. This allows you to safeguard the first-party data you are collecting.
The use of first-party data allows for reliable and better tracking, which can improve customer relationships. As we can target individuals by targeting specific custom behaviours they take, for example their purchase history.
