The Big Story: Data Privacy Experts Flock to DC

The Big Story podcast

With a feast of privacy laws in the works, data privacy professionals are in the middle of a heyday.

As digital advertising grows up, and its practices raise more concerns among regulators, the latest hotspot for the industry isn’t Silicon Alley in New York or Silicon Valley in California, but Washington, DC.

At the IAB’s Public Policy & Legal Summit on Monday, the mood was one of (friendly) urgency, our managing editor, Allison Schiff, reports from Washington, DC. At the IAPP Global Privacy Summit a day later, which encompasses privacy issues beyond advertising, the curiosity of the group was evident. A session on the end of the cookie was standing room only.

Though advertising trade groups like the IAB may oppose the FTC’s actions, FTC senior attorney Michelle Rosenthal reassured advertising industry attendees that it doesn’t want to be “scary,” but it does want “reasonable limitations” in place.

Rebuilding after ATT

Then, we discuss how gaming advertisers rebuilt their user acquisition marketing businesses after Apple implemented AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) nearly two years ago.

The change removed the IDFA for two-thirds of valuable iOS users. Gaming brands saw their customer acquisition cost skyrocket and customer long-term values plummet. In-app purchases sank. But through improved use of Apple’s SKAN framework and contextual targeting, things are looking up.

Except for Meta. Because it became more expensive to find people post-ATT on Facebook’s apps, some mobile marketers haven’t been able to restore their Meta budgets – though they’re hopeful that new tools, like a conversion API, could at least partially restore the marketing channel on which many of these gaming apps originally found their audience.

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