iOS 6 introduces the Advertising Identifier, a non-permanent, non-personal, device identifier, that advertising networks will use to give you more control over advertisers’ ability to use tracking methods. If you choose to limit ad tracking, advertising networks using the Advertising Identifier may no longer gather information to serve you targeted ads. In the future all advertising networks will be required to use the Advertising Identifier. However, until advertising networks transition to using the Advertising Identifier you may still receive targeted ads from other networks.

URLs and placement information was a nice start, but it’s not enough. Segment data (e.g., interest, engagement, propensity to purchase, demographic) needs to be put to work to improve the effectiveness and value of programmatic inventory.  It needs to happen ideally via a mechanism that keeps the data safely in the hands of its first-party owners and available to designated partners only on terms, times, and conditions of their choosing.

Tom’s discussion is a worthwhile read for any publisher looking into RTB.

This illustration outlines a few key milestones in the development and adoption of Do Not Track interwoven with a number of privacy, legislative and technological developments along the way.

Enjoy.

Join Crowd Science for a free 30 minute webinar to find the latest on Do Not Track (DNT), and how to prepare your assets from its ramifications. Register for the webinar to find out:

- What is DNT
- History of DNT
- How DNT works
- JustAsk! Research on public’s attitudes towards DNT
- Five things publishers need to know about DNT
- How to prepare for DNT
- Crowd Science and DNT

Date: Tuesday, August 28
Time: 10:30 to 11 am Pacific, 1:30 to 2 pm Eastern
Who should attend: Online Publishers, Agencies, Brands, and the Super Geeky.

Register here

• General awareness of DNT and third-party tracking
• People’s intention to enable a DNT feature
• Attitudes and perceptions towards third-party tracking

More specifically these questions were effective in digging deeper on individuals attitudes around web personalization, an ad supported web, ad relevance, support for third party tracking, as well as awareness and intent around DNT.

The report can be downloaded here  but I wanted to highlight a few interesting points.

Surprisingly, only 35% of respondents agreed that web personalization is not important to them, and only 13% agree that it is acceptable to be tracked in order to provide this personalization. A greater proportion (47%) of visitors fully accept ads to be necessary for web sites to offer free content. In all cases there is a large proportion (42% to 50%) that sit in the neutral bucket for these statements.

While over half (52%) of respondents are aware of the DNT feature, such a large neutral group across personalization and ad acceptance, may make it interesting to monitor over time as there may be a shift as awareness increases. 62% of respondents have either never heard of DNT or have heard of it but don’t know much about it, indicates that there is still a long way to go in terms of awareness and an opportunity for a shift in attitudes and intentions.

Most interesting is that across the sample group, over half (51%) indicated that they are likely to enable the feature (probably will or definitely will). There is much speculation around what the impact may be for the industry if the DNT feature use approaches anywhere near this value.

The web as we know it, and the use of tracking and advertising, may in fact be poised for a major change in the near future. The reaction by consumers, businesses, and technology will be interesting to monitor. We at Crowd Science have long been proponents of privacy, opt-in methodologies and responsible cookie usage. Crowd Science strives to be at the forefront in these challenges and our CITRUS audience modelling and prediction technology permits us to do some interesting cookie-less ad targeting.

The guide does a great job in defining and outlines some of the basic cookie concepts and goes as far as including an example cookie section for a privacy policy, as well as a practical guide for a cookie audit.

http://www.esomar.org/uploads/public/knowledge-and-standards/codes-and-guidelines/ESOMAR-Practical-Guide-on-Cookies_July-2012.pdf

At it’s core, Do Not Track is a standard proposed by the W3C that would enable web users to express consent to their online behavior being monitored. This online tracking is primarily done through third-party cookies and for the purposes of targeted advertising.

Back in 2009 the Federal Trade Commission hinted to an online “Do Not Track” similar to the “Do Not Call” list for telemarketers. An important distinction here is that the DNT initiative is not backed by any legislation, nor is the standard finalized, and is fully voluntary. Further, DNT is a technical specification and does not cover the ethics of it’s implementation.

DNT is not new. FireFox already supports it in it’s Firefox browser 4 released earlier this year, and Opera recently announced it will be supported in it’s next release. Pseudo-technically, DNT is a setting that the browser will include in it’s exchange with page requests. There are three possible states. A status of 1 indicates the user does not provide consent to be tracked, a value of 0 provides consent, and the absence of the DNT indicates the visitor has not expressed their preference.

The primary debate is around Microsoft’s intention to enable DNT by default. To further complicate things, the W3C added to it’s specification that the DNT should not be set by default.

The best description that I’ve come across in the argument to not have DNT set by default is by the Network Advertising Initiative:

But with a default-on mechanism, the impact on small online publishers and third-party technology providers, which are vital to today’s Internet, would be nothing short of catastrophic. Publishers of free content, services, and entertainment may move behind pay walls, or may disappear altogether, if they can’t monetize their content with targeted ads. For many third party companies, which facilitate interest-based ads or personalization, a default-on system jeopardizes their business – meaning no business. I don’t like to inject hyperbole into this discussion, but we are talking about no less than thousands of lost jobs and billions of dollars in lost revenue.

On the other side, the approach that Microsoft has taken is best described by their chief privacy officer Brandon Lynch

Microsoft believes “that consumers should have more control over how information about their online behavior is tracked, shared and used,” chief privacy officer Brendon Lynch wrote in a memo yesterday. Part of that choice is deciding whether or not they want to receive more relevant advertising. And here’s the touchpoint: “[DNT] advances the idea of privacy as the default state.

The debate on both sides is quite active and interesting to follow. Though one view that I was surprised not see get more attention is one expressed by John Battelle on this searchblog

To me, this presents a huge opportunity for the owner of a site to engage with its readers, and explain quite clearly the fact that good content on the Internet is paid for by good marketing on the Internet. And good marketing often needs to use “tracking” data so as to present quality advertising in context.

So there you go, a few basics on DNT. As a consumer you can look forward to new options around controlling your online privacy, and for any of those involved in third party based advertising, this debate will surely be followed closely.

Crowd Science today announced the first results from customers on [the performance of] CITRUS, the unique first party audience segmentation and targeting platform for online publishers and content networks. The announcement was made during Internet Week at the Conversational Marketing Summit in New York City. Federated Media Publishing is hosting the event. Since launching CITRUS last October, Crowd Science has acquired an impressive list of online publishing customers including Ziff-Davis, Federated Media Publishing, Huddler, ifood.tv and IndieClick.

Results confirm that CITRUSʼ first-party segmentation and targeting capabilities change the game for publishers by allowing them to differentiate themselves to advertisers and increase monetization from more of their online audience. The power of the platform comes from its combination of psychographic research and behavioral and contextual targeting, which is then overlaid with proprietary machine learning. The resulting output creates highly accurate audience segments across every pocket of a site or network of sites. This innovation drives a level of detail and clarity for online publishers that are not available using standard analytics or targeting solutions.

Ziff Davis

Ziff-Davis works with Crowd Science to supplement its powerful BuyerBase targeting system and offer new audience segments to attract advertisers. “CITRUS segments allow us to include precise targeted line items in our RFPs that attract our advertisers and win business,” Marcella Reginault, VP of Marketing & Sales Operations at Ziff Davis said. ”We incorporate Crowd Science audience segments to hone in on specific targets within our owned and operated sites.”

Federated Media Publishing (FMP)

Federated Media Publishing (FMP) partners with Crowd Science to understand and segment its diverse audience across more than 350 sites. Last month, FMP began selling Crowd Science audience segments within its advertising portfolio. The first segments include “digital gadget sharers,” “recipe sharers” and “Twittering moms,” with dozens more in development. “We look forward to using this intelligence to inform FMPʼs ad products and boost the way our brand partners get their messages to the right audience,” said Michael Goodman, Director of Market Research at FMP.

ifood.tv

ifood.tv recently joined forces with Crowd Science to help leverage their first party data to better define, segment, and target the niche audience theyʼve cultivated. “For example, a BBQ food product company can now reach just the BBQ enthusiasts they are seeking on ifood.tv and not have their ads blanketed blindly across the site,” states ifood.tv founder Vikrant Mathur. “Given the specificity with which consumers are now selecting their food, it is imperative that brands target the correct audience. “The technology Crowd Science provides helps us connect brands with the right audience, at scale.”

Huddler

Huddler came to Crowd Science seeking new options for its ad sales team to offer advertisers. Traditionally focused on site-by-site sponsorships, CITRUS allowed them to uncover more of the valuable niche audience segments their advertisers wanted across their entire network. “There is no doubt that Crowd Science helped enable and differentiate our proposal and allowed us to win some big brand campaigns,” says Adam Ferren, Director of Sales and Revenue Operations. “We recently received a second RFP from a new sporting goods advertiser, and it’s because of Crowd Science that we were able to add a quality account like that to our client list.”

“Until now, publishers have had challenges in truly measuring and harnessing the unique attributes of their entire audience,” says Crowd Science CEO Corey Leibow. “We are thrilled with the results our customers are seeing with CITRUS, and the positive response we are receiving in the market.”