Today the IAB Tech Lab is publishing version 1.0 of the Open Private Join and Activation (OPJA) clean room interoperability standard. Throughout the past year, together with a growing number of industry collaborators and members of the Tech Lab’s Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) and Rearc Addressability working groups, our team played a leading role in developing OPJA with the goal of enabling interoperable privacy safe ad activation based on PII data.

Beyond our work on the initial proposal, we have several broader goals with OPJA:

1. We aim to define an open and standard set of requirements for a type of clean room operation that enables an advertiser and a publisher to match sensitive datasets containing user PII, such as email addresses or phone numbers, while limiting information exchange between parties as much as possible.
   
   
2. We want to develop and promote the adoption of standard mechanisms in OpenRTB that enable ad targeting of OPJA-matched user ad impressions, using any compatible SSP or DSP.

3. We want to provide open reference implementations that enable OPJA while adhering to the stated requirements.
   
   
4. We want to support both OPJA’s encrypted labels as a way of securely activating matched audiences from Optable, as well as interoperate with other vendors based on OPJA’s secure matching mechanisms.

While we think that there is room for clean room vendors and collaboration platforms to offer their own proprietary spin on the activation use case (many already do), we’re hoping that they will make an effort to evaluate and align their implementations to better adhere to OPJA, and we intend to make it easy for them to do so.

In order to achieve our goals, agreeing on an independently trustable manner in which user data can be matched and activated in the multi clean room vendor setting was imperative.

Doing this work in the open is essential, as it ensures that it is widely accessible and that any vendor can contribute ideas and review the proposed protocols and technologies. Open-source promotes transparency, collaboration, and inclusiveness in the development process. We believe that providing a common foundation that anyone can access, modify, and contribute to is essential to achieving interoperability between all vendors, instead of a select few.

Why Activation?

We decided to focus our initial interoperability standards efforts on the activation use case not only because it is a frequently encountered use case in industry, but also because we have noticed confusion regarding the extent to which user information is exchanged between parties that enable the use case in proprietary ways today.

On the surface, activation of overlapping audiences matched using a clean room is straightforward. Consider the case of an advertiser with a list of customers that wants to display ads to those customers when they are interacting with a publisher’s websites or applications. If users have provided personally identifying information, such as their email address, to both the publisher and advertiser directly, then the advertiser and publisher can compare datasets in a clean room in order to construct an audience of overlapping users. Here’s a Venn diagram illustrating the operation:

While seemingly simple on the surface, when it comes to the sharing of information associated with individual users, there are several subtle but material differences that may arise when such an operation is performed in practice. Notably, what new user information could the advertiser and publisher parties learn as a result of performing the match and targeting operation? Will the advertiser be able to track which of its individual customers are also browsing the publisher’s websites? And will the publisher learn which of its registered users are also the advertiser’s customers?

To answer such questions, a standard set of security and privacy design goals, input and output requirements, and clear documentation regarding the extent to which private user information is exchanged between parties when enabling the ad activation use case were all elaborated and made part of the OPJA specification. Ultimately, our goal with OPJA is to enable ad targeting on overlapping users without the parties leaking user information to each other. This is not only good for end user privacy, but it also prevents data sharing that could be exploited by competitors.

Raising the Privacy Bar

A defining characteristic of clean rooms is their potential to limit the scope of the processing of user data controlled by multiple parties. A simple example of this in practice is the construction of an aggregate report describing the intersection of two audiences originating from separate parties. In such a report, the joining, grouping, aggregation, and statistical noise injection can all be performed in a data clean room, thus preventing either party from learning anything about the other party’s data, other than what is included in the prescribed report.

This limiting capability of data clean rooms is inherent in the activation matching operation prescribed by the OPJA specification. In OPJA, a secure match is performed in order to determine which individual users are in the intersection of audiences originating from an advertiser and a publisher. Rather than the list of matched users being shared with either party, the presence or absence of each user in the intersection is encoded in the form of a label and is then encrypted. These encrypted user labels are shared with the publisher who cannot decrypt them, but who is able to insert them into ad requests. Ad requests are processed by ad tech (SSPs and DSPs), and only the advertiser’s designated DSP can decrypt corresponding match labels, enabling the DSP to make decisions on whether and how much to bid for the opportunity to show an ad. Critically, PII such as email address or phone number are never shared or transferred in ad requests, or outside of the match operation.

Equally important is that thanks to label encryption, OPJA allows the hiding of information about which individual users are in the audience intersection from both the advertiser and the publisher. This reduces data leakage between advertisers and publishers, and enables remarketing without requiring user tracking. Fundamentally, it’s an approach that adheres to the data minimization and purpose limitation principles of privacy by design.

Privacy Enhancing Technologies

OPJA outlines two approaches enabling the matching of user PII data in the multi-vendor setting, and they’re both based on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). The first is a purely software based, delegated private set intersection. This method enables the comparison of encrypted datasets using commutative encryption, without decrypting the data. The delegated helper server cannot decrypt the match data and is used merely to execute data comparison and generate encrypted data for activation. Additional trust in the helper server could be provided through hardware provided remote attestation.

The second approach is based on hardware provided Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). This method ensures that match data is encrypted exclusively for the secure processing hardware provided by a helper server.

The use of PETs offers a robust foundation from which trust between vendors regarding how user data is matched can be achieved. OPJA matching requires that the data remains protected with encryption during processing, through a combination of cryptography software and TEE hardware. This greatly reduces the number of things that vendors and service providers need to trust each other with.

OPJA’s matching approaches are also not theoretically limited to a single cloud or infrastructure environment. These characteristics make PETs based approaches great as matching interoperability candidates in the multi-vendor setting.

Learn More

You can read the OPJA specification as well as the IAB Tech Lab Data Clean Room Guidelines here. Additionally, here's the Tech Lab's latest announcement on the 1.0 spec release.

For a fun introduction to OPJA, check out Digiday’s excellent WTF is IAB Tech Lab’s Open Private Join and Activation?

For a simple walkthrough on how commutative encryption can be used to enable double blind matching (not specific to OPJA), have a look at the little explainer here.

Integrate

If you’re a data or ad tech vendor (SSP, DSP, ad server) interested in interoperating with the Optable data collaboration platform using OPJA, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us an email.

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Finally, it’s our hope that OPJA is a catalyst for future open proposals associated with measurement, audience modelling, and other use cases that involve the sharing of sensitive user data between advertisers and publishers.

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To work the way they should, data clean rooms need to bring a fluid, real-time, embeddable infrastructure to data collaboration. And at the heart of such an offering, there needs to be an API that allows any client to deploy the data clean room approach across any inventory, any type of audience data and any third-party cloud provider.

In this way, any third-party application or platform should be able to benefit from a data clean room by embedding its API for secure, privacy-preserving data collaboration. 

This in turn enables a complete digital media workflow via API, and taking Optable’s service as an example, it looks like this: 

1. Collecting data at the edge. The API is wrapped in our SDKs for iOS, Android and web to enable this, but it can be done for virtually any other platform.
2. Creating audiences from data onboarded in the platform, whether it’s from traits or available identifiers.
3. Enriching a device graph by feeding identifier associations and user attributes.
4. Creating a data clean room and inviting a partner to match with an audience.
5. Executing a match with the partner by using our open-source matching library and command-line utility that implements various PSI protocols. 
6. Ultimately, all of this is done in order to enable analytics and straight-line activation. Both of these functions are available via API as well. 

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One of the best applications of a data clean room API is in combination with a customer data platform (CDP). An API can be used to properly leverage audience data housed in a CDP, making this data actionable for activation and measurement with third parties. 

Another good example involves walled garden data and inventory. Whether it’s for CTV, audio or traditional web formats, an API can be used to effectively drive advertiser performance anchored in real customer data. 

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Ultimately, the API is here to make it easy to leverage the data clean room approach in any third party platform or application. 

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The culling of the cookie. Increasing consumer awareness. The realization that third-party data isn’t all that effective. All these factors have slowly but surely driven advertisers to implement alternative targeting solutions.

One such alternative is data clean rooms (DCRs).

The problem is that while they are a viable solution, most traditional DCRs still operate as third-party databases, meaning that users have little to no control over what is being done with their data.

The solution? A new generation of privacy-preserving data collaboration software has emerged that is able to provide advertisers with DCRs that measure and match overlaps in data - all without infringing user privacy.

But why should the industry pay attention, and what are the benefits of leveraging this new software?
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1. A purpose-limited environment for advertisers

The key here is the phrase ‘purpose-limited.’ These privacy-preserving DCRs are created with advanced cryptography that minimizes data leakage, providing a purpose-limited environment for advertisers in which to work. 

This means users have to explicitly consent to their data being used for things such as analysis, activation or measurement. 

Since these DCRs are limited to the purposes for which the users have consented, they not only give advertisers an opportunity to analyze, activate and measure data - but also to protect the privacy and sovereignty of user data. 
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2. Maximum collaboration opportunities for publishers 

Next-generation DCRs stand out for their frictionless collaboration and interoperability capabilities.

In Optable’s case, for instance, only one side of the match needs to be the company’s customer - the other partner can be from any organization, opening up much wider opportunities for collaboration.

The only thing the publisher needs to do is create an identity graph. Once this is set up, they can start collaborating with a number of different partners.

Publishers can invite these partners to join the DCR by either:

1. utilizing Optable’s open source utility to encrypt their data at source, regardless of the system it sits in - and executing a multi-party computational protocol with their own data set
2. working with other industry partners such as cloud data warehouses, to allow brands using their services to leverage the DCR without their data ever leaving the data warehouse.
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3. Adapting to everchanging consent statuses

A key stand-out for this new breed of DCRs is their ability to collect and push out data in real time.

As well as leveraging privacy-enhancing technologies, DCRs such as Optable have also built real-time programmatic workflows around these technologies. This means they are not only purpose-limited, but are also able to keep up with users’ changing consent statuses.

If, for example, a user who has consented to analytics withdraws that consent at a later stage, Optable is able to gather that information in real time and remove the user from a clean room immediately.
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4. Activating data on both the buy-side and sell-side 

By using our ‘data collaboration nodes’, we can ensure that data sets from different partners are physically decentralized from one another. This means, for instance, ensuring that data from the buy-side and sell-side is never merged, and stays inherently separate within the clean room.

Audiences can still be activated and targeted directly outside of the clean room, but none of the data is pushed into the open bitstream or connected to a third-party ID - ultimately preserving the integrity of the DCR.

This is important as it means that brands are able to activate and measure their data - on both sides of the coin - without compromising on privacy standards.
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5. Privacy-centric activation 

As well as activating data, brands can also schedule data matches with partners to look at the overlap between publisher data and advertiser data, for example. These create a matched audience over time that brands can analyze to gain useful insights into their customers, enabling them to target them more effectively.

These insights can include specific traits within a customer base that a brand or advertiser might not have known about their audience before. And this can all be done without ever pushing any of the data out of the DCR.

Our publishers, advertisers and brands can effectively send in first-party cookies (and other non-matchable first-party identifiers) that we use to produce a key value. This is then pushed directly back into Google Ad Manager or any other ad server. This allows publishers to invite advertisers into their own DCR without the data leaving its original source - all the while being able to activate campaigns and target their first-party data.

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In the age of cookieless, Optable provides customers with a powerful privacy-preserving tool that can match publishers to advertisers and activate audiences in real time. Request a demo today and see how our DCR technology can help you collaborate with ease.

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Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash

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Far from being competitive, data clean rooms and customer data platforms are complementary. If you’re serious about maximising the value of your audience data and digital advertising, you need both.

Traditionally, when it came to managing data and building advertising audience segments, particularly for online acquisition, Data Management Platforms (DMPs) ruled the roost. But things are changing.

While DMPs mainly rely on third-party data to build audiences, increasing privacy legislation and the dismantling of third-party cookies and device identifiers mean cultivating and harnessing first-party data is now critical. And, in addition to acquisition, retention, engagement and personalisation are now key focuses as brands tackle changing customer journeys that are non-linear, fluid and fragmented.

Additionally, shifts to identity-based experiences - dealing with multiple forms of dynamic identity and recognising individuals’ myriad connected devices, emails and other identifiers - require new approaches to managing this complexity. The result is that CDPs have come to the fore.

These allow data supply chains to be connected and the data normalised, providing a centralised, real-time source of truth that enables publishers and brands to gain data sovereignty and deliver effective data strategies.
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‍Unlocking the value of data

As publishers and brands wrestle with the changes occurring in the digital advertising environment and address the loss of traditional data signals by bolstering their first-party data, simply collecting, collating, controlling, safeguarding and managing the data isn’t enough. What’s also critical is amplifying its value to deliver effective data-driven advertising and achieving this relies on partnerships.   

In a perfect world, the many CDPs available today would employ the same standards and be built on open-source software so their users could easily partner with the customers of any other CDP. But we don’t live in a perfect world, and this is where DCRs - or, to describe them more accurately, Data Collaboration Platforms (DCPs) - play a crucial role.

Today, successful advertising is only possible through direct collaboration with partners, be they publishers, brands, or agencies.

DCRs act as middleware, allowing users to facilitate secure data connections with trusted partners to capitalise on the value of data in delivering personalised advertising, while maintaining security and privacy – all without putting personally identifiable information at risk.

In this way, DCRs unleash the value of first-party data, turning it into a competitive advantage for the data owner. For advertisers, this means achieving better results from ad campaigns by activating their data and measuring success. For publishers, it means leveraging the value of their own first-party data to allow advertisers to deliver more effective advertising, without exposing it through the bidstream or identity graph.   

It’s not just about connectivity. DCRs must achieve this in a frictionless manner, so users can collaborate with any partner they choose. 

Closed systems stifle collaboration. A true DCR offers interoperability, flexibility and ease of use, utilising open-source, decentralised approaches so users can create rooms and invite parties to collaborate directly, irrespective of the platform they are using.

In a cluttered advertising ecosystem, DCRs must remove complexity and make the whole process - from inviting collaboration and data onboarding, through to activating it and measuring success - simple and quick. Essentially, they become the mechanism for leveraging the first-party data stored in a CDP.

That’s why we developed our solution: to remove barriers, facilitate easy collaboration and provide a frictionless, platform-agnostic approach to delivering the data-driven digital advertising of the future. 
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Don’t think one or the other

So when it comes to debates around CDPs vs. DCRs, it’s not a question of either/or, but both. 

As first-party data and IDs replace the old ways of doing things, CDPs are essential for managing the data complexities. However, advertising success centres on connecting this data with other partners. It’s independent DCRs, like Optable, that provide this critical frictionless collaboration environment so the data can be activated and its value realised, for the benefit of the whole industry. 

DCRs and CDPs play crucial but different roles in fixing today’s broken ecosystem and helping tie everything together. So if you think, ‘Do I really need a DCR if I have a CDP?’ - the answer is a definitive ‘Yes’.

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During lockdown, with Covid raging outside, those with the opportunity to do so turned to their gardens, treating them as sanctuaries, lavishing them with care and attention and cultivating what they could. 

And at about the same time, the ongoing eradication of public identifiers was inspiring a comparable new strategy for publishers. Edged out of the third-party-data-driven world they knew - but which had never really played to their strengths - they busied themselves creating their own walled gardens, their own content fortresses.

What have they grown? More personal data, more insights and a much deeper connection to their audiences - a connection anchored in consent. Publishers’ first-party data is private, relevant, hugely detailed and engaging, and so, like anything built with care and attention, these sanctuaries have a very real value to those they invite in.
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Your data meets mine in a data clean room

First-party publisher data is manna for brands, and especially those who have been carefully tending their own data gardens. Google has found that brands using their own first-party data for key marketing functions achieved up to 2.9X revenue uplift and 1.5X increase in cost savings.

When brands work with publishers to mix their data and build relevant segments and publisher cohorts, the effect is equally compelling: The Guardian last year reported a 65% higher than average brand lift for brands using its first-party data. Wherever you look, the effect of first-party publisher data is emphatic.

However, at every step, old habits need to be questioned. For publishers, the best way to amplify the value of that data has always been to connect it to brands, but for all the obvious reasons, that can’t happen over public programmatic pipes anymore. 

Instead, the most efficient, effective, privacy-safe way for publishers to make their private data available for analytics and activation is through a new, proper, data clean room-enabled infrastructure. 

The proportion of publisher inventory that transits through clean rooms - what we call clean room media - is growing, as brands and publishers realise in unison that their old channels are drying up and new ones are needed.
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We’ve been here before - only different

In fact, the shift is uncannily reminiscent of the old programmatic revolution - the very architecture the new privacy-conscious world is now working to replace. Just like clean room media, programmatic started small and ended up huge, as the scale of the opportunity - and the opportunity cost of ignoring it - became apparent. 

But clean room media is many leaps ahead of the old programmatic free-for-all, in that it allows publishers to easily monetize their newly available audience data in a safe, privacy-preserving way. And it gives brands bespoke data - better than anything they might have found in the old marketplace. 

So brands get what they need: more precision and performance through exclusively available audience data, while leveraging the data they’ve been carefully collecting and enriching in their own CDPs.

Publishers, meanwhile, get the reward for the deep, private, inimitable relationships they have developed with their users.

And, crucially, in this new ecosystem, consumers get more control and more privacy protection than ever before.
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Exponential growth of clean room media

One publisher that uses Optable has seen its share of clean room media increase six-fold over the past few months, and it’s expected to continue growing exponentially.

So, just because programmatic is yesterday’s technology, does not mean that the technology of tomorrow shouldn’t adopt its trajectory.

Before outstaying their welcome, third-party cookies gave us the very worthwhile expectation of openness, interoperability and ease of use - all attributes of clean room media.

In the same way, tomorrow’s data solutions need to echo the revolutionary, problem-solving qualities that made programmatic the success it was - only with the addition of privacy, exclusivity, a better deal for brands and publishers and a renegotiated consumer contract.

As clean room media continues to grow as a category, it’s exciting to see more and more publishers and brands adopt this new way of transacting.

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All around the world, the right to consumer privacy is being painstakingly tightened up through legislation. In Canada, that process takes the form of Bill C-27, a stronger, modernized legal privacy and data protection framework that governs the protection of individuals’ personal information, as well as the legitimate need of organisations to collect, use or disclose aspects of that information. And just like everywhere else, publishers, advertisers and ad platforms operating in Canada must be ready to comply.

Bill C27: Canadian privacy legislation

New privacy legislation is inevitably daunting for businesses, particularly when it limits commercially important applications of data. But there are ways to continue making effective and strategic use of data without violating consumers’ right to privacy.

The right way to collaborate on the basis of audience data is by using the data clean room approach. Data clean rooms focus on enabling collaboration between partners using audience or customer data, enabling personalization of offers and content, but with transparency and privacy controls at the heart of the user experience.

Optable is a data clean room solution that is uniquely positioned to serve Canadian customers.
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Optable data clean room platform: A made in Canada solution

• We are a private Canadian company, already fully compliant with the EU’s established GDPR laws

• Ideally for Canadian publishers and advertisers, our hosting takes place in Canada, with none of our infrastructure based in the US or elsewhere

• We don’t undertake probabilistic matching on our platform - in other words, we don’t identify users across different devices and applications

• We are ID-agnostic and do not operate a global identifier of any sort

• We fully support the consent element of the legislation, according to which organisations are generally required to obtain meaningful consent for the collection, use and disclosure of personal information 

• We offer robust data subject request support, for maximum transparency and compliance

• Our differential privacy features prevent the re-identification of individuals

• We collect first-party data in real time, using the client’s domain name. This data remains the legitimate property of the owners - Optable does not sell, rebundle or use audience and customer data in any way

• We are integrated for activation. Our platform snaps right into any client’s existing activation infrastructure using Prebid, SDA and ad server integration - no need to export data

• We create purpose-limited clean rooms that give our clients complete control of the outcome 

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Amid the upheaval of broad-based new privacy legislation, data clean rooms are a compliant oasis of data collaboration, allowing companies to plan, measure and activate campaigns securely, with full regard for privacy, transparency and regulatory compliance. So if the many positive aspects of Bill C-27 seem to come with a sting in the tail for your data practices, data clean rooms are the privacy-preserving solution.

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Photo by Jason Hafso on Unsplash

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This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

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Optable Core Values

We value diversity and inclusion and believe that the sum of different cultures, opinions and beliefs creates a stronger team that will deliver great results. A group of people with the desire to succeed. All pulling together in the same direction. Knowing that every single person has your back. With respect, trust, and the knowledge that any single one of our teammates is capable of taking the lead at the right time. With this attitude we all win. And when we don’t, we try again.  Because we learn quickly and don’t give up. 

Empathy

Showing empathy towards each other is probably the best way to get the most out of any given team. Every day brings new challenges but also new opportunities to reconsider how we see and value our colleagues. Empathy also helps us focus on listening. It forces us to reflect on our actions and words and it brings us closer together.

Trust

Building trust in our relationships is our promise. We are all about transparency in communication and actions. We are honest, we own our role, decisions, actions, and their consequences. We strive for an environment where we can rely on each other.  Trust is earned. And we never, ever make fake promises.

Innovation

Challenging one’s own thinking and having the mindset to strive for continuous improvement is what innovation means to us. We encourage curiosity, challenge assumptions, take calculated risks,  and anticipate changes. Failure is welcomed. It’s what allows us to learn and generate new ideas while enabling us to embrace changes and drive faster towards success.

Enthusiasm

Promoting excellence in the workplace is what enthusiastic employees do. It’s infectious, and an example for those around them to follow. It’s the core understanding that energy comes from energy so we recognize and reward those brave enough to smile in the face of challenge. We play to win as a team and lift everyone’s spirits to bring joy, satisfaction, and results.

Bias for Action

Taking initiative and embracing change help create a successful business. We don’t spend too much time overthinking decisions. We prefer acting on possible solutions instead of waiting for the perfect one. If it needs to get done, we identify solutions and start building. We are not perfectionists, but we work relentlessly to improve.

Why did I join Optable?

When did you first realise that GAFA (Google and Facebook, followed quickly by Amazon and Apple), had become so dominant in digital advertising that the very idea of a free and open internet was under threat? I was like a frog in increasingly tepid water, going about my mundane existence, until one day it felt like it was almost too late. 

I do believe the big tech platforms can be a force for good. Yet a world where journalism, content, commerce, entertainment, and even transportation is dominated by a small number of powerful companies starts to feel very dystopian very quickly; and while I do not believe their motives should be distrusted, I do believe their power should be checked. I'm not an advocate for government intervention in markets - I believe innovation and disruption can do the job. 

I would argue that there are three things which have enabled GAFA's dominance of the digital ads market. Centralised identity, aggregation of first-party data and a divided eco-system of brands, publishers, and intermediaries who have no choice but to conform and partner with the dominant players even if it is not in their best interest to do so. 

An open and fair digital ads market. Is, in my view, a vital component of a free and open internet. How can the supply and demand side of the digital marketing ecosystem embrace fragmentation, leverage de-centralisation and disrupt the incumbent players?  By creating a whole new paradigm based on cooperation, collaboration and mutually aligned interest.

Centralisation drove dominance for GAFA

Google, Facebook, and Amazon have built massive empires off the back of centralised identity structures on both the mobile and desktop internet. Recently, they’ve extended this to CTV and smart home devices,enabling them to aggregate more audience data than had ever been imagined possible.  Essentially, everything they see and touch becomes a valuable source of first-party data which can be used to drive outcomes for advertisers.

The ecosystem of independent publishers, media owners, agencies, and platforms are almost powerless in the face of this. Government intervention in the form of privacy legislation has inadvertently made matters worse by strengthening the centralised platforms while increasing fragmentation on the open internet and further dividing the ecosystem.

Decentralisation of identity and audience data is a force for disruption

The way to challenge dominant centralised structures is not with more centralisation. In the same way that defi is attacking the institutions of centralised finance, the digital marketing ecosystem can leverage fragmentation, encourage decentralisation, challenge the status quo, and create an entirely new paradigm for data-driven advertising. 

In order to turn decentralisation into an attack vector, independent media owners, brands, and mar-tech intermediaries must find ways to collaborate and share data which respect user privacy, preserve data sovereignty, ensure compliance, and enable activation at scale.

Introducing Optable: Decentralised Data Collaboration for the Digital Marketing EcoSystem - Built In Montreal

It's been said that we are seeing a renewed cycle of innovation in digital marketing - new platforms are emerging and new ways of working are being defined. Optable is not the first company to blaze this trail and I will offer a respectful tip of the hat to those that have been focused here ahead of us. Healthy competition and offering choice to clients will ultimately benefit the ecosystem as a whole.

Vlad Stesin, Bosko Milekic, and Yves Poire have assembled an experienced team of product designers and engineers to build Optable off the back of their experience as the founders of DSP and ad-serving platform Ad Gear, which became the foundation of Samsung’s CTV advertising business. With privacy, security, and data sovereignty at its core, Optable has been built for a connected TV world; the platform is a game changer and I could not be more excited to join the team as Chief Revenue Officer.

This week Google's announcement somehow managed to send shockwaves through the ad tech world.  In essence, they've confirmed what has been communicated between the lines for a long time: Google has no interest in helping other platforms in any way.  There is a clear path towards cutting out the competition, doing so under the promise of privacy and "greater good."

This is the greatest opportunity for adtech in a long time.

At Optable, our focus is on data connectivity for this new era in ad tech.  Our thesis is simple:

1. Privacy is now a feature in software, and that trend is not stopping
2. Legislation around personal data protection is going to continue to proliferate around the world

This is all leading to a world with more walled gardens that care deeply about their first party data, curating that data with direct consent provided by end-users.

As a result, the best way to compete with the incumbents is to work together on the basis of this data.  Prior to the erosion of global identifiers, this connectivity layer wasn't necessary. The whole ecosystem was stitched up using cookies and MAIDs.  Now, it is very much is tablestakes.

To make this collaboration easier while improving on trust issues, we are now offering new ways to connect data, ways that are anchored in security and privacy, using cryptography as an enabler.

The future is not going to lean on one identity framework that replaces global identifiers: the new ecosystem will be constructed using a patchwork of identity frameworks, operating in and around walled gardens, connecting data to each other without sacrificing users' privacy.

How exciting is that?