Consumer data are the lifeblood of the interactive industry -- without data, online marketing becomes obsolete. But when a campaign ends, there are lingering questions as to who owns the data -- the marketer, or the publisher whose website the campaign appeared on. So the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Association of American Advertising Agencies (4A's) have been tasked with determining the true owner -- and they've decided it's the advertiser.
The two industry groups have released a document, "4A's/IAB Standard Terms and Conditions for Interactive Advertising Version 3.0," that says marketers own any "user volunteered data" gleaned during a campaign.
While granting ownership of the data to advertisers is huge, agencies and publishers still have some control over how that information is used. For one thing, marketers cannot reuse the data without the publisher's approval, paidContent reports.
Publishers, for their part, are not allowed to disclose details about orders, performance, or click data without consent from the agency and advertiser first.
The 4A/IAB standards are a revision of a 2002 document, but data ownership was not a hot-button issue at the time of its release. The new terms and conditions are meant to serve as the standard terms and conditions for the entire interactive industry.
