In the words of the immortal Eminem: “Oranges, peaches, PEARS, plums, syringes.“
Okay, awkwardly moving on: after a period of public comment, the IAB Tech Lab has officially released the first version of the PAIR protocol.
The IAB Tech Lab originally introduced the PAIR (Publisher Advertiser Identity Reconciliation) protocol last September. PAIR provides advertisers and publishers with a privacy-focused way to match and activate first-party data for campaigns without relying on third-party cookies. As a cryptographic protocol, it supports data privacy by using advanced encryption to safely and securely activate audience data.
At a high level, advertisers and publishers encrypt their activation data using a shared key and their own private keys. This process is facilitated by Data Clean Rooms (DCRs), which, according to the IAB Tech Lab, are “becoming more and more private by design.”
See more about PAIR here.
Why This Matters:
Obviously, there has been a decline in the availability of traditional IDs like third party cookies for personalized advertising. Advertisers and publishers have embraced first-party data, as a result. But they need support for privacy safe matching, activation, and use of these datasets. PAIR is part of that effort, or is trying to be.
Initially developed by Google in 2022, PAIR was open-sourced last year when Google donated it to the IAB, enabling its adoption industry-wide. The IAB Tech Lab has since expanded on the original framework, making it easier for advertisers and publishers to collaborate. (And any DSP can now use it.)
This new version also introduces key updates, including reducing the number of keys that need to be managed and enabling advertisers and publishers to work with separate DCRs seamlessly.
Experts React:
Shailley Sinah, EVP Product & COO for IAB Tech Lab, posted about the launch on X:
“PAIR is the first end to end actionable standard for integrating Data Clean Rooms and Privacy Enhancing Technologies in open programmatic tech stack for activating First Party data from Publishers and Advertisers. Cant wait for adtech to implement and usher into the golden age of privacy enhancing advertising.”
We also interviewed Vince Niou, the Founder of APAC-based marketing agency Skeleton Key, about PAIR back in October. Check that out here. Per Vince, “I think [PAIR is] great. On the industry level, it represents an evolution of how audience targeting will work in the new privacy-by-design paradigm.”
Our Take:
As the industry continues to balance addressability and privacy, new tools and protocols like PAIR are essential. But a question remains: will a new, potentially more business-friendly administration align with initiatives like PAIR? Will they view these steps as sufficient to address privacy concerns, or push for more? It will be interesting to see what the relationship between the ad industry and Trump looks like in 2025 and beyond.
