• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, July 10, 2023

Nothing short of industry acceptance and support, the IAB Tech Lab on Friday released the final first version of its guidance and recommended practices for interoperable data clean rooms (DCRs) to support advertisers and publishers.

The document aims to improve the understanding of DCR in digital advertising and expected capabilities and limitations, with a focus on giving publishers and advertisers clear guidance to answer questions they should ask of DCR vendors.

One of the most important questions they should ask is how a company can determine that a clean-room product provides privacy preservation guarantees.

First-party data will become more valuable as the advertising industry retires the process of using third-party identifiers.

InfoSum provided the initial draft for the Data Clean Rooms Guidance as a pioneer within the Data Clean Rooms and Data Collaboration ecosystem.

“The democratization of data is a critical next step that we all need to take seriously as a unified industry to ensure a sustainable future,” states Devon DeBlasio, vice president of global product marketing at InfoSum.

He says to create a “safe and secure” process to use first-party customer data, “we must ensure that all parties are aware of the baseline requirements for connectivity, permissioning, use, and privacy protection.”

This first release of the Open Private Join & Activation (OPJA) specification as well as DCR Guidance and Recommended Practices let providers start building products and features using the interoperability standard for activating private audiences.

OPJA is a protocol that enables advertisers to activate audiences with first party data without leaking private information by using cryptographic techniques and Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) including public-key cryptography, private set intersection, and commutative encryption. 

The OPJA specification and DCR Guidance document work in tandem to provide guidance to buyers and sellers choosing DCR solutions and to enable vendors to build standardized and interoperable private audience activation features.

Magnite also contributed to the Data Clean Rooms Guidance & OPJA specification. Many were based on operating a clean room that allows sellers and buyers to match data sets without revealing private information. The company also committed implementing OPJA into their Data Clean Room product called Magnite Match. 

Optable also contributed to the development of the OPJA specification and the Data Clean Rooms Guidelines, motivated by the need for interoperability in the media and advertising industry. The company’s data collaboration platform enables advertisers, publishers, and retail media to connect private user data for advertising.

The IAB Tech Lab will continue to provide implementation guidance and technical specifications, and help drive adoption and innovation in Data Clean Rooms privacy technology.s