At LiveRamp, we believe in the democratization of data. We believe infinite value can be unlocked when ethically sourced data is shared freely for the common good. To enable this, we are committed to supporting an open, vibrant, and competitive ecosystem built on trust. We believe in a level playing field for all and greater transparency and control for businesses and consumers.
Our mission is to power a trusted, neutral, people-based identity solution that catalyzes the entire ecosystem. Recognizing early on that consumer behavior went well beyond the desktop browser, we took a diversified and people-based approach to building RampID. Identifiers like device IDs or cookies are disparate and isolated touchpoints that alone do not provide a complete view of the consumer—which is why our solution encompasses so much more. By taking an omnichannel and people-based approach to identity, businesses are able to maintain addressability and deliver exceptional experiences in a privacy-first manner throughout the entire customer journey—even as identifier types change or channels shift in importance.
That’s why we’ve recently made RampID available at no charge to every programmatic activation platform. Every platform should be able to receive RampID-enabled segments, bid on RampID, and send exposure logs on RampID. These changes provide every marketer with good options to maintain addressability, regardless of any potential change to browser settings.
While we can debate the role of third-party cookies over the long-term, to date, they have served as the backbone of the free internet and have spurred tremendous innovation and growth. We encourage industry leaders and participants to work together to promote a healthy and competitive ecosystem, enabling a level playing field for all and greater transparency and control for businesses and consumers by advocating for the following five principles:
- Provide consumers with visibility and control over how their data is used. Every consumer wants to understand how their data is being collected and used. That’s why browsers should give the consumer unprecedented control and choice while honoring the relationship and permissions that trusted brands have established with their audiences.
- Promote a healthy and competitive ecosystem. Every participant in the industry has embedded, stable processes and technology on which they’ve come to rely. As a result, we encourage large industry platforms and others to minimize disruption, ensure that current tools can still be used effectively, and preserve innovation and a competitive ecosystem.
- Do not use browser controls to disintermediate me and my partners from the consumer. Every participant in the ecosystem wants to be able to connect with consumers via their platform of choice. Browsers should enable this—while respecting consumer privacy. The browser is the access point to the consumer and, like all utilities, should provide equal access to all participants. It should not disintermediate or dictate the relationship or controls a brand has established with the consumer. If consumers don’t want personalized ads or don’t want to be associated with a data point, they should be free to work with those companies to opt out or update their preferences. The consumer should always have the final say.
- Allow technology choice and independent measurement. Brands should be free to choose the tools and platforms they work with to deliver experiences to their customers—and the ecosystem should support data portability and independent measurement.
- Enable publishers to communicate with readers. As journalism rapidly migrates from print to online, publishers strive to keep readers informed and provide news content on their sites. Browsers should enable this freedom of the press, and publishers should not be disintermediated from their readers. Readers should have the choice of the relationship they want to have with publishers and whether or not they want to opt in or out to receive news content from publishers.
As an industry, we must come together to build a better foundation for the future—one that not only creates better experiences for the consumer but also catalyzes the entire ecosystem and nurtures continued innovation and growth.