In 2021, the private sector got serious about data privacy, led by Big Tech gatekeepers such as Google and Apple, who are making it harder for businesses to track consumers without their consent on desktop and mobile. The privacy startup sector exploded, and adtech vendors rolled out new trackers left and right to fill the gaps left by cookies.
But the glut of new solutions does not mean that martech, much less the private sector as a whole, has figured out how to prepare for the future of data privacy. Here are five privacy predictions to keep an eye on in 2022. It would be in your best interest to determine how you and your company are affected.
five privacy predictions to keep an eye on in 2022
1. Universal IDs will consolidate. You would think that with all of the attention that Universal IDs get in the press, the industry has it all figured out. Far from it. When trying to solving the problems posed by cookie deprecation, the UID is a spot solution, scavenging for 10% of the total addressable market with 90% of consumer activity inside walled gardens. Anyone who has studied the principles of product-market fit (PMF) would raise an eyebrow at the attention UID’s garnered, considering the number one principle of PMF is the size of the total market. Ten percent seems a little light to me, not to mention that dozens of companies are competing for this 10%.
In 2022 we will see several consolidations, bankruptcies, and pivots in this space as funding, competition, and demand wane. The most significant catalyst here was the delay in the deprecation of the cookie to 2023, all but eliminating the demand for UID overnight. The pitch continues to be that ‘the UID is present in X% of the bidstream,’ but the reality is without demand, this is wasted effort.
The industry, true to form, defaulted to the notion that the cookie WILL go away in 2023, but I am not so sure. The combination of the ineffectiveness of Google’s FLoCs and its recent attention from privacy experts suggests the strategy of removing the cookie in the name of privacy might backfire.
2. Keep an eye on email. The adtech and martech industries have a nasty tendency to focus on the thing that is six inches in front of their faces, missing the larger trend. Lost in the conversation about UIDs and the removal of the cookie is the reason these IDs are being removed in the first place: privacy. Swapping one ID for another without acknowledging privacy puts you right back at ‘GO’ every year. The fixation on the email illustrates this perfectly.