Vegan Ads: Target Opt-Out Users While Protecting User Privacy

From the GDPR to the surge in opt-out traffic, broadcasters and publishers need to gear up for the future and get ready to adopt innovative advertising solutions that protect user privacy. 

We are constantly optimising our proprietary SSP — the smartx platform — by developing new features that address these challenges. One area of focus has been developing new approaches for privacy-compliant ad delivery. Our latest feature, “Vegan Ads”, is a targeting capability that enables the delivery of targeted advertisements to users without using cookies, device identifiers, or other personally identifiable information (PII) that is connected to a user. With Vegan Ads, we can monetise broadcaster and publisher inventory without accessing or storing users’ personal information, as well as prevent downstream partners from meddling with user data. 

Advertisers also benefit as they can connect with users who are otherwise unreachable. The information sent to our DSP partners within the bid request does not contain any personal information. Instead, Vegan Ads use the following non-PII to target audiences:

• Geographic location
• Contextual targeting (i.e. matching the audience’s tastes and preferences based on the publisher and environment)
• Prefered browser language
• Device-centric data (e.g. device group, device settings, user operating system, and browser)