Expert Lists Measures to Address Future of Data Privacy

The Managing Director at Google sub Saharan Africa, Mr. Alex Okosi has listed five steps all marketers should take to be prepared for a privacy-centric future.

According to him, 2024 is the year to get uncomfortably excited as a digital marketer, following Chrome’s planned third party cookie deprecation in the second half of 2024, as well as regulatory changes in the landscape.

Echoing sentiments found in Europe, as highlighted by research from IAB Europe, which reveals that 75 per cent of Europeans would opt for the current internet experience, complete with targeted ads, over a version devoid of personalised advertising but requiring payment for access to websites, content, and apps, Okosi warned that it was time to take a hard look at ads privacy strategy and get a realistic picture of how much people may still rely on legacy technology, like third party cookies.  This, he said, would be the end of the ‘precision’ era in favor of new tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and privacy preserving technology that enable ‘prediction’.

He therefore listed five steps every marketer needed to take, to include: Tagging, Consent, First-party Data Strategy, Data Management and Stock Taking.

According to him, tagging as an important step, it is the foundation on which a successful measurement strategy is built – it’s how advertisers understand how their websites and campaigns are performing, measure conversions and thoughtfully and responsibly collect first-party data.