Richard Knott.
The AdNews end of year Perspectives, looking back at 2024 and forward to next year.
Richard Knott, SVP APAC, InfoSum
Firstly, a mea culpa. My 2024 Perspective “The year of the deprecation of the third-party cookie” was accurate, right up until it wasn’t when Google announced in July that cookies had received a stay of execution.
I noted there could be further delays, but I don’t think anyone foresaw Google switching cookie deprecation to consumer choice. Similarly, I noted we’d need to wait and see what the Privacy Act amendments would bring, but I didn’t think we’d need to wait until 2025 for decisions around the use of first-party and third-party data collection.
Despite these two prediction delays, the writing remains on the wall for brands and marketers. They must find ways to prioritise and embed data security in their practices and technologies, reduce reliance on third-party cookies and focus on privacy-based first- and second-party data strategies.
Many in the adtech and martech industries see this shift, but rather than rearchitecting their core technologies to privacy-by-design principles, we are seeing the rise of a new trend: “Privacy Washing”.
Privacy washing, much like greenwashing in the sustainability sector, refers to when a business publicly claims to prioritise data privacy but lacks accountability, making subjective claims while failing to implement privacy best practices. Terms like "privacy-first," "privacy-safe," and "privacy-centric" are being tossed around with increasing frequency—and decreasing credibility.
Sadly, we’ll see more of this as we move into 2025. Marketers should be both aware and very wary.
A quick LinkedIn search for some of these hashtags reveals repeat offenders spruiking “privacy-centric” solutions that use outdated technologies and practices. Be warned - they continue to move, centralise, and commingle massive amounts of customer data - directly contradicting the core principles of true privacy.
Instead of addressing these flaws, some companies opt to rebrand themselves or acquire a so-called "privacy-first" technology. But privacy isn’t something that can be layered on top—it has to be built into the foundation of how the technology works from the ground up.
Beyond being merely deceptive, privacy washing has the potential to be genuinely damaging. An organisation duped into implementing what they have been told is a robust privacy solution could be in real trouble when the second-tranche of the Privacy Act Amendments is released in 2025. For example, a solution that is currently marketed as ‘privacy compliant’ in Australia might not be compliant in a year or two - because current Australian Privacy law compliance is a pretty low bar given how far we lag behind global legislation.
To avoid falling into a privacy-washed trap, brands and marketers must ensure that any implemented solution never moves, centralises, or commingles data between parties; it’s an outdated practice with no place in the current global legislative landscape.
So my final prediction - smart marketers will be looking for and implementing solutions that incorporate the principles of Privacy-by-Design. These external principles require technology to incorporate multiple layers of privacy protection and security in order to manage risk proactively and not treat privacy like a zero-sum game.
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