Thread explaining FLEDGE (formerly TURTLEDOVE).
Online advertising generates value for publishers, advertisers, & users. Now, Google & others are proposing alternatives that preserve this value while better protecting user privacy under the "Privacy Sandbox" proposals. 1/12
The public discussion of #PrivacySandbox is dominated by #FLoC, but many tech solutions are required to satisfy advertising use cases while protecting privacy. In particular, #FLEDGE propose more fundamental & interesting changes to the status quo. 2/
The key to FLEDGE is to move user targeting information onto the *browser*, rather than broadcasting a cookie ID to the adtech ecosystem so advertisers can bid on ad opportunities based on what they know about that cookie ID. The prototypical FLEDGE use-case is retargeting. 3/
Example: When a user visits Macy's site, Macy’s can add that user to an *interest group* (IG) on the browser. Macy’s can then (re)target users who visited its site: the set of users with Macy’s IG in their browser. The IG also specifies the ads Macy’s wants to show the user. 4/
Any site could set up an interest group. Consider a mattress review site: It could create an interest group and sell the opportunity for mattress manufacturers to show ads to users who are in the market for a mattress. This is affiliate marketing. 5/
To preserve user privacy while allowing targeted ads, the user’s browser runs an on-device ad auction. As inputs, the browser knows the set of eligible advertisers from the user’s interest group membership as well as info like the user’s ad frequency count. 6/
Where does the seller (the publisher) fit? The seller specifies the auction rules and lists eligible advertisers, which tells the browser how to choose a winning ad. This has the knock-on benefit of potentially codifying what can otherwise be an opaque process. 7/
Where does the buyer (advertiser) fit? The buyer already specified its bidding strategy and ad creatives in the interest group. 8/
But campaigns change, so how can buyers prevent zombie🧟 interest group ad campaigns from emptying their wallets? The buyer loads real-time elements of its bidding strategy onto a (trusted) server, which in turn tells the on-device auction how to bid (or stop bidding!). 9/
The on-device auction then has all it needs to: 1) select a well-targeted ad based on the user’s browsing 2) allow sellers to optimize revenue 3) allow buyers to bid intelligently.
Voilà, a new ad is born on the user’s device (not an external ad exchange)! 10/
Why so convoluted? FLEDGE does not want the publisher or advertiser to know the ad chosen by the browser (!!), because this reveals the user’s cross-site behaviour: e.g the user visited Macy’s then the publisher's site. 11/
To do so, FLEDGE proposes to eventually render the ad within a data firewall called a “fenced frame.” In the interim, FLEDGE allows ad-level reporting, but this will eventually be rolled up so that buyer/seller see total ad spend/revenue but not who sees what ad.
END/ 🐦🦆🦢🦜🏸
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In 2020, the Dutch public broadcaster NPO got rid of cookies and saw its revenues improve. This is held up as a hopeful example that privacy and publisher monetization can coexist. I want to share three comments. 🧵 1/8 wired.com/story/can-kill…
NPO claims that revenue rose 70% year-over-year in the first 2 months without cookies. This is an impressive achievement unlocked by building their own ad server, next generating contextual targeting, marketing to advertisers, etc. 2/ brave.com/publisher-3rd-…
Comment #1: This case study is hard to assess because year-over-year changes are far from apples-to-apples comparisons. Much can change between years that would confound our interpretation--beyond the many changes NPO implemented. 3/
🤔DO ADS ACTUALLY WORK?🤔
🧵We tackle this question using a large collection of display ad field experiments in a working paper with @EconInformatics & @enub
"The Online Display Ad Effectiveness Funnel & Carryover: Lessons from 432 Field Experiments” ssrn.com/abstract=27015… 1/8
Recently, the effectiveness of advertising has been called into question. Some of this skepticism is healthy. Measuring the effect of advertising properly is *really* difficult, as I detail here:
On average, our ad experiments run for 20 days & contain 4M users: 1.6B user-campaign observations in all! Our data come from the 1st months of Google’s Conversion Lift & Brand Lift products, which are powered by our (predicted) ghost ads methodology: doi.org/10.1509/jmr.15… 3/
🚨Working paper update!🚨
🧵Post-#GDPR, website use of tech vendors fell 15% but relative concentration increased 17%.
"Privacy & market concentration: Intended & unintended consequences of the GDPR” w/ Scott Shriver & @samgarvingold ssrn.com/abstract=34776…
(Image: Digiday) 1/14
Privacy and competition top today’s policy agenda particularly in tech. Google & Facebook capture 56% of global digital ad spend. They also face regulatory scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic on both counts.
But, could #privacy policy actually reduce #competition? 2/
How? Large firms could have more resources to comply with the law or leverage firm recognition to better obtain consumer consent.
New: If privacy law pushes firms to limit data vendors, firms may favor retaining large vendor that offer better products (or compliance). 3/
Today, I spoke at the W3C improving web advertising business group about the economics of digital ad identity. Thread🧵 on some takeaways on the future of digital ads. 1/
Cross-site identity (via cookies) allows for behavioral targeting. Importantly, identity allows for less sexy but *critical* functions like ad frequency capping, ad effectiveness measurement & attribution—all at scale. 2/
What is the value of cookies? In the status quo, most studies and data agree that cookies create value: ads get 50-70% less revenue without cookies. 3/
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” - Dante’s Inferno👿
Online display ad experiments are hell. They are also a proving ground for field experimenters, & have much to teach us. The guide is organized into the nine 9 circles of 🔥hell🔥 as applied to #displayad#fieldexperiments
🔥Circle 1🔥 Display ad effects are so small🤏 that observational methods fail🤦♀️. Ad effects explain so little variation in ad outcomes, that they get swamped🌊 by unobserved confounds. Like Dante entering the inferno👿, we resign ourselves to the necessity of experiments.😭😭
The @guardian featured an opinion piece about how the #GDPR is failing to protect privacy.
The piece serves as an unintentional object lesson of the same. THREAD 1/ theguardian.com/commentisfree/…
Here is the excerpt where the author decries prevailing opt-out practices alongside the Guardian’s consent menu doing the same.
Note: The @ICOnews states that this menu is not #GDPR compliant (“NO" should be as easy as "YES"). 2/
When I VPN as a French user The Guardian interacts with 42 third party domains (listed below) and loads 122 third party cookies.
Note: All this arises without my opt-in consent. 3/