As a marketer, the more data, the better. As a consumer…not so much. Having grown up as a digital marketer, I am 100% comfortable and a fan of all the tracking that has been available. With that, I know my friends and family who are not in “the biz” have always been thoroughly creeped out by the depth of data being shared with advertisers. The classic example is the shoes you have been eyeing but haven’t pulled the trigger on following you around on your internet journey (aka retargeting).

The United States has always been one of the most open countries when it comes to data exchange compared to Europe or other cohorts, but that has been changing. The biggest shift happened the past month with Apple’s ITP restrictions. Basically, what they have done is cut down the “shelf life” of cookies which have been the number one way advertisers have been able to anonymously track and identify users (no PII of course).

Why should you care? While ultimately the experience and outcome will remain the same, the attribution piece is what will change. Sites will see inflated unique users and activity because duplication will be more frequent. How can you combat this will depend on your objectives and the types of data you have available. If you are in an industry where you have access to 1st party/CRM/known data, you can use this to replace cookie-based data. Another option is modeling. While this isn’t a one to one tactic, it will allow you to use patterns you have seen in the past to make inferences on behavior.

There is not a one size fits all solution for this situation, so it is important that you consider your specific business needs and data availability, tech stack, etc. before making any drastic changes.