CM July and August 2018

OPINION
Third-degree burns
How do the recent Facebook scandal and new General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) impact the future use
of third-party data.
AUTHOR – Andrew Georgiou
Andrew Georgiou
ONE would have had to have
been on another planet
not to have seen the news
recently about Facebook
and whether it did/did not
fully understand how its
users’ data was being analysed, re-packaged
and sold to influence such events as Brexit
and the US Presidential Election.
Whatever may or may not come out
in the wash in the months and years to
come, Facebook was seriously burned,
and the scandal has had equally serious
repercussions, not least of which is Facebook’s
decision to close its ‘Partner Categories’. In
simple terms, this means that advertisers can
no longer target against third-party data.
Although using third-party data was
common industry practice, Facebook clearly
saw the move as a necessary step in helping
to rebuild its reputation and trust in the
business, and the need to apply a soothing
balm to its seemingly self-inflicted wound.
But it isn’t only the Facebook scandal
that has seen businesses fretting over the
issue of third-party data. GDPR has also
sent the industry into a state of mutual
apoplexy, confused over what is or is not now
permissible not only in how data is used, but
also in how it is stored and communicated,
and the permissions required. Even when
third-party data is allowed, it appears now
to be so fraught with ethical and potentially
legal challenges, that some are beginning to
feel that it's not worth the effort.
But while third-party data appears to be
out of favour, temporarily or otherwise, it is
certainly not the end of data per se, or how
data can be used effectively and intelligently
in a business environment. First-party data,
the data that every business ‘owns’ in their
own right, remains one of the great untapped
sources for improving communication,
customer interaction, and business
performance.
FIRST PARTY DATA
Every company holds a certain
amount of business information,
including transactional, purchasing,
communication, behavioural or customer
profile data. The challenge is in accessing
that data and segmenting it to their
advantage. This is a particular challenge
to larger enterprises with multiple brands
that often run, effectively, in isolation.
The information captured by one brand
could often be of benefit to another within
the same ‘group’, if only there was a better
way for that information to be analysed
and shared.
Technologies exist today that enable
precisely that: technologies that apply
artificial intelligence and machine
learning to turn large amounts of ‘dumb’
data into meaningful business insights.
Disparate and often fragmented databases
across multiple and often legacy platforms
can be integrated, channeled and
delivered to give businesses a ‘single view’
of their customer, across departments,
brands, or even borders.
By effectively ‘visualising’ the data,
businesses can make better-informed
decisions in terms of the services they
provide, the credit they extend, and the
risks that they take.
The technology is, in itself, perhaps
not new. Such solutions are being
developed, for example, in the world
of social media, where first-party data
is being used to maximise Facebook
and Instagram advertising. AI capable
of analysing hundreds of data points
are enabling marketeers to plan and
execute campaigns within minutes rather
than days. At the heart of the solution,
however, is a recognition of the value
and importance of data that businesses
already own but have, as yet, failed to
properly understand or leverage.
Andrew Georgiou is the Founder
and CEO of FILED.com
The Recognised Standard / www.cicm.com / July/August 2018 / PAGE 12