Privacy-FriendlyPersonalization

Charlie ReverteVP Engineering@numbakrrunch

Don't judge me...

Personalized

Personalized

Personalized

Personalized

Why Personalize?

● Funnel optimization○ Shorten the path between a person and

something they want● Increased conversion through

higher relevance● Super-serve individual audience

segments● Streamline your site to focus users

on your content, products and ads

The Next Phase of the Web

● In the beginning there were directories..○ Navigate a hierarchy to find content

● Then came search○ Skip the hierarchy, just tell us what you want

● Now the web is personalizing○ We already know what you want, here’s a great

experience

Good Data for Personalization

● Infer intent from behavior○ Demographics are a poor proxy

● Observed vs. Declarative○ What I do vs. what I say or "like"

● Context○ Show me something related○ Match my mood

BehavioralInputs

Data Output

Declarative Inputs

User-Defined Segmentation

Personalization Pitfall: Boxing

● Boxing - is where a consumer’s vision and choices are limited by .. analytics that make judgments based on their digital history○ Martin Abrams - Boxing and Concepts of Harm

● Already a self-selecting behavior

● Don't reinforce, however users don't want to be contradicted either

Think Discovery

● Don't spend all of your inventory on reinforcement

● Diversify user interests to broaden conversion

Cold Start: Use 3rd-Party Data

● Cold-start problem○ Bootstrap with 3rd-party data

● Maximize yield on your earned and owned user acquisition○ The widest part of your funnel

● Treat first time visitors as well as your loyal customers

3rd-Party Data Landscape

● Cookie-based behavioral data○ Will be fragmented but not dead if 3rd-party cookies

are limited● Contextual extraction

○ Scrape, classify, referer, geo, time of day● Hybrid: Contextualized based on observed

behavior○ Classify sites based on behavior + context○ Apply to cold start

Context and Surprise

What's the difference?

1st- vs. 3rd-party context?

Creepy?

Useful?

Minimizing the Creep Factor

Privacy isn't just about PII vs. non-PIIand 3rd-party cookies● Take a user-centric approach● Base your application of data on user

sensitivities and expectations of privacy● Avoid surprising users● Clarify whether they're anonymous or not● Leverage real-world paradigms

○ Users know how their "street identity" works

Transparency and Control

Empower your users..

Summary

● Privacy-friendly personalization is a value-add to users

● Take a user-centric approach to privacy

● Build trust through transparency and control

● Apply 3rd-party data to unlock your site's full potential

Questions?

Charlie ReverteVP Engineering@numbakrrunch

charlie@addthis.com