IAB Tech Lab has acquired DigiTrust and will integrate its neutral identifier technology into services for the digital marketing ecosystem.
As it comes just a month before the GDPR compliance deadline, IAB’s acquisition of DigiTrust is timely. DigiTrust’s technology and services can provide additional infrastructure for IAB’s GDPR Transparency and Consent Framework initiative, the company said. IAB Tech Lab is developing standards for transparency, consumer protection and “appropriate consistency” across its services.
DigiTrust creates a neutral identifier for its members to use online that replaces third-party requests such as cookies. Since thousands of companies use their own cookies to track user behavior, a universal token would, in theory, provide more accurate tracking data to marketers and speed up web page viewing, since multiple cookies would no longer be necessary.
A neutral ID would serve as a baseline for related commercial offerings, explained IAB Tech Lab senior vice president and general manager Dennis Buchheim in a press release.
“Audience recognition is central to ad relevance and effectiveness, privacy and consent, measurement, attribution, anti-fraud efforts, brand safety and more,” said Buchheim. “Our vision is to bring together Tech Lab’s expertise and technical standards portfolio with DigiTrust’s footprint, storage mechanism and real-time services to help move the industry forward in audience recognition, privacy controls, etc.”
Despite the acquisition and all the consumer data that comes with it, IAB Tech Lab promises to remain a neutral third party. IAB Tech Lab and DigiTrust will not collect, store, share, use, buy or sell consumer behavioral data or personal information, the company said.
“We recognize that audience recognition and privacy standards necessarily entail great responsibility by our members on behalf of the consumers they reach globally,” added Buchheim. “This work must be governed appropriately and implemented responsibly, without bias. We’re looking forward to working with and supporting all DigiTrust members.”
