The Trade Desk is courting additional third-party support for its identity solution, submitting Unified ID 2.0 to PRAM, the Partnership for Responsible Addressable Media.
PRAM is a new ad industry group, launched last August. It’s comprised of the industry’s foremost trade associations and brands, as well as agencies and publishers. To date, members include the 4A’s, ANA, IAB, WFA, P&G, Unilever, Ford, NBCUniversal, UM, Publicis Media, LiveRamp, MediaMath, and Adobe.
Ultimately, the consortium’s goal is to ensure addressability on the open Internet as third-party cookies and other common forms of web-tracking are culled from the digital ecosystem. Browsers and regulators are all but killing these technologies under the guise of consumer trust and privacy concerns, though less altruistic motives are also likely.
The Trade Desk submits its ID to PRAM after the group called for contributions of addressability code for collaborative development earlier this month. In submitting, The Trade Desk is signaling the desire for independent, third-party management of Unified ID 2.0, which is necessary to encourage adoption. However, it should also be noted that The Trade Desk is a founding member of PRAM, which might complicate the relationship.
Like other identity solutions (Panorama ID, ConnectID, etc.), The Trade Desk’s ID uses “encrypted and hashed email addresses,” not cookies, which should help consumers more easily manage their privacy and data footprint across the web.
“The contribution of Unified ID 2.0 to PRAM demonstrates how the industry can work together to advance new addressability solutions that support the open internet,” says Bill Tucker, executive director of PRAM. “PRAM and its members have been working for months to develop the standards and architecture for addressability that safeguard privacy and protect ad-supported digital content and services, and we are delighted to welcome the first code contribution for our collaborative development process. Unified ID 2.0 aligns with PRAM’s founding principles, and we look forward to bringing it into the PRAM process for review and input from an even broader group of developers from across the industry.”
Meanwhile, Jeff Green, co-founder and CEO, The Trade Desk says, “I’m so proud of what the industry has accomplished in just a few months with the Unified ID 2.0 solution, a new approach to internet identity that answers all the questions around consumer privacy while enhancing the value exchange of the internet. The next step is to unleash Unified ID 2.0 more widely, to a broader group of collaborators, and then to third party administrators and operators. I couldn’t be more excited to begin that process with PRAM.”
Unified ID 2.0 continues to see momentum as CEO Jeff Green tries to create a common, cookie-less currency for Internet identity. Earlier this month, The Trade Desk’s ID was adopted by video ad platform SpotX. The PRAM submission is intended to be another vote of confidence for The Trade Desk’s ID, which already has the support of heavy hitters like Criteo, Nielsen, The Washington Post, and LiveRamp.
