Publishers, to protect first-party data and contextual assets from ad tech players, should incorporate new privacy regulations into their strategic decisions.
Many contextual products and by-products cannot exist without the availability of content, which is critical to media outlets and serves as the frontier to targeting and analytics. However, some ad tech companies to glean contextual signals, are harvesting and using publishers' intellectual property and assets outside of legal contracts.
With contextual targeting complementing audience targeting, ad tech companies are gathering contextual data without the permission of publishers to gain access to user data. For example, an ad-tech firm might build look-alike models and scale third-party data tools using consumption insights and brand preferences from media sites.
Unauthorised content harvesting, if left unchecked, could deplete a media brand's resources for quality content production, as well as affect the quality of ad landscapes for consumers and advertisers. Small media publishers can license their content and offer contextual products to prevent ad tech companies from harvesting their metadata. Larger media companies should form a panel to safely collect contextual data and increase the value of their audience relationships.
[3 minute read]
