The Ally: Q&A on Cookieless Certification with Lisa Abousaleh at Neutronian

The Ally – A new series from Alliant showcasing viewpoints from today’s top thought-leaders moving the audience and advertising industry forward.

Hear from the industry’s top movers and shakers as they share their unique perspectives on audience data, the advertising landscape, and their personal approach to navigating an evolving industry. Alliant is excited to bring forward viewpoints from ally brands with a shared passion for innovative and compliant audience solutions.

In this Q&A edition of The Ally, Lisa Abousaleh, CEO and co-founder of Neutronian, shares her stance on the need for future readiness around the third-party cookie (or lack thereof) and what certification in this space means for data providers like Alliant and the ecosystem as a whole. 

Alliant finished off 2023 receiving both the Neutronian Cookieless Certification and the joint Neutronian & IAB Tech Lab Data Quality Certification for data transparency and quality. With Google already restricting third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users and planning to increase that number throughout the year, Alliant is especially excited to lean into the cookieless conversation with a thought-leader like Lisa.

What does Cookieless mean to Neutronian, especially in 2024?

To Neutronian, it means that you are prepared to be part of a future marketplace that no longer enables transacting on third-party cookies. The future is NOW and everyone -- from data providers like Alliant, to publishers, to brands -- needs to have solutions in place that will still be operable when rules set by the likes of Google go into effect – solutions that do not use third-party cookies in methodology and action.

Can you share the things Neutronian looks for from data providers when granting the new “Cookieless” Certification?

Neutronian looks to verify that third-party cookies are not part of the data collected directly and are not leveraged as a part of the methodology used to create solutions, for example in identity resolution. We also review any external data sources that a provider leverages to understand if they are reliant on third-party cookies for the data they provide you with. If one of your data sources leverages third-party cookies on their end, we look to assess what the impact will be to that data source and ultimately your output based on that source once third-party cookies go away. This helps to understand viability and scale of your solutions in the cookieless future.

The Cookieless Certification process starts with inputs provided for Neutronian’s core Data Quality and then leans into a more in-depth evaluation of third-party cookie usage. This is an ongoing/annual certification and data providers like Alliant with the certification will need to maintain certain standards and meet a set of cookieless criteria ongoing which Neutronian will be monitoring with regular check-ins.

Is Alliant well suited for the Cookieless Future? 

Alliant is a long standing Neutronian partner that continues to show an industry leading commitment to transparency, privacy and quality. When companies proactively seek out Cookieless Certification and gain independent verification that their solutions are not reliant on third-party cookies, they position themselves well in front of brands and agencies looking to identify future-proofed advertising strategies.

How does the Cookieless Certification fit into your overall portfolio of solutions?

Neutronian has three types of solutions available to the larger marketing ecosystem serving brands, agencies, data providers, publishers, and technology platforms – ratings, certifications and analysis. Data privacy and quality are the foundational backbone over everything we do across these categories of solutions.

In terms of our certification offerings, the Neutronian Quality Index (NQI) framework provides a core standardized, yet flexible foundation that allows us to be able to address current and new challenges such as the evolving regulatory environment and declining third-party cookie support in a structured way. The Neutronian Certifications help brands, agencies, and data providers increase transparency, mitigate risk and improve campaign performance.

We currently provide three types of certification offerings, our overall Data Quality Certification, the Cookieless Certification and a bundled solution combing our Data Quality Certification with the IAB Tech Lab Data Transparency Standard Compliance Program.

The Data Quality Certification provides an in-depth, independent audit of data quality and privacy compliance. Meanwhile, the joint Neutronian and IAB Tech Lab Certification focuses on data transparency and quality. Last but not least, the Neutronian Cookieless Certification is much more specified for the future of our industry with respect to the loss of third-party cookies.

What’s next at Neutronian?

We are focused on ensuring that our solutions continue to provide a relevant and meaningful verification standard. This requires staying on top of key changes and trends in our ecosystem and evolving our solutions to take these new factors into account. For example, as new privacy regulations emerge, we will be working to incorporate additional considerations into our Data Privacy Scores. Then as AI use becomes more prevalent, understanding the steps that companies are taking to ensure that they are incorporating AI in a responsible and privacy conscious way will be added as a consideration for our certification offerings (and maybe event its own type of certification). Our goal is to continue to be a source of trust and transparency, helping brand and agencies make better informed decisions and supporting high quality data providers and publishers.

Certifications are great for Alliant, but they are only the first step towards ensuring our solutions benefit our customers now and in the future. According to Donna Hamilton, Alliant's Chief Innovation Officer, “the cookieless future is now.” Alliant has had solutions in place to help clients prepare – and thrive – within this new paradigm for quite some time. The Alliant data cooperative model and audience-based solutions power an extensive identity graph, predictive modeling, and customized audience solutions. Through these tools, marketers will continue to find success, even as the landscape evolves around them.

Learn more about Alliant’s commitment to data governance and third-party certifications which speaks loudly to establishing marketplace authority in data quality and future-proofed solutions.

About Neutronian: 

Neutronian is a SaaS company providing the most comprehensive approach to data privacy and quality verification. Using a standard evaluation framework, Neutronian produces independent data privacy “credit scores” and in-depth data quality certification. These solutions provide marketers with the transparency they need to confirm that their data and inventory partners are privacy compliant and ensure that their campaigns are running in privacy safe environments. High quality, privacy compliant data providers that work with Neutronian to improve their data privacy scores or achieve certification can be rewarded via faster sales cycles and increased customer trust. For more information, please visit neutronian.com.