• by Teodora Scutelnicu , Op-Ed Contributor, March 2, 2023

Data clean rooms are here to stay. It's a matter of when (not if) we will engage in some shape or form with them.

With cookies sunsetting and acceleration of privacy regulations, data clean rooms have emerged as a privacy-first technology to facilitate a “safe collaboration between advertisers, media owners, technology platforms, and data providers,” and other organizations have already started developing industry standards and best practices that could potentially guide how data clean rooms are being operated.

Measurement will be a major part of this.

Deterministic or Probabilistic measurement? 

The removal of old data signals (cookies) and full adoption of Identity Solutions has been a massive undertaking for the entire industry for the last couple of years.

These changes are important for the measurement landscape, as they bring up many questions around what type of measurement will dominate 2023 and beyond. 

Clearly, there will be less deterministic data with cookies going away. However, there is more data integrity and accuracy for the data captured through IDs.

There also is a privacy-first environment for data today that did not exist before.

Is 2023 the year of acceptance that probabilistic will be the new deterministic?

Data clean rooms could technically facilitate safe data exchanges based on any available identity solutions -- and power both deterministic and probabilistic new measurement solutions to be developed. 

Who will lead measurement in a privacy-first world?

Data clean rooms will create a safe exchange of data and potentially powerful new measurement solutions. Who will be the players to lead the new measurement arena?

It will be interesting to watch to see whether traditional measurement partners will adapt and integrate with data clean rooms to evolve their measurement solutions. Or, if the teams that developed and implemented data clean room technologies will take on this new measurement undertaking, empowering data science teams to build new solutions.

Will there be potentially new players that emerge in the measurement space -- or will the existing ones adapt to align with the changes? T
ime will tell.

More fragmentation or consolidation for measurement?

We do not yet have a clear understanding of whether data clean rooms could fully communicate with one another and what the level of interoperability is. I like to believe a privacy-first technology solution could potentially power and bring forward a more consolidated measurement approach for the industry.

LiveRamp, Snowflake, Google, Amazon, Disney, Appsflyer, Habu, and Infosum are some of the better-known data clean room providers. However, as the space matures, there may be more players to join the pack this year.

2023 is the year in which, privacy-compliant, durable measurement solutions are finally ready to be thoroughly tested, scaled, and implemented.

Data clean rooms are the thing to watch closely this year, as they will help us help us bridge the old to the new -- not only for audience building and activation, but also for measurement.