Get real with Blis: Why transparency is so important

On day 3 of our Get real with Blis education week, we’re looking at data transparency and why it’s imperative to account for it in your marketing strategy. 

Most organisations today have access to vast quantities of consumer data, from social platforms and financial institutions to major retailers and travel providers. Following some recent high-profile data breaches, consumers have become even more interested in where and how their data is being used. That’s why for a company that collects data, transparency is more important than ever. Organisations in the digital advertising industry need to ensure data is being collected, stored and used properly through the adoption of advanced security and practising transparency with both consumers and other businesses. 

People are understandably concerned about who is collecting information about them and how it’s being used. The world is responding with new laws and regulations that require both consent and transparency, and pressure is being applied to major industry players. 

Since much of the privacy debate centres on digital content and advertising, those of us who work in the space need to be duly concerned about the consumers who interact with the content we serve or publish. We are the ones collecting and handling their data, and not only must we respect and adhere to the regulations around its usage, but we must also make sure our clients, partners, and consumers understand how we’re using their data.

Blis is committed to ensuring that consumers always feel in control of where and how their personal information is collected, stored and used. With offices across five continents, our location data is independently verified and compliant with GDPR as standard. 

Defining data transparency

It’s useful to define what we mean by data transparency. According to Your Dictionary it is both:

  • The ability to easily access and work with data no matter where it is located or what application(s) created it.

and 

  • The assurance that data being reported are accurate and are coming from the official source.

Let’s look at both of these definitions in more detail and how Blis puts these into action through our proprietary technology.   

The ability to easily access and work with data no matter where it is located or what application(s) created it.

The vast amounts of data available to marketers provide both challenges and opportunities. Understanding the provenance of the dataset you are working with and being able to extract the insights is essential while having a vendor you trust must be the starting point for all businesses looking to use location data. Blis enables every client to lift the lid on their campaigns by offering full access to our Smart Platform. Businesses can build bespoke location audiences, monitor live campaign activity and optimisation strategies and generate high-level reporting analytics. 

The assurance that data being reported is accurate and is coming from the official source.

As we discussed earlier in this series, because location data is generated by unpredictable humans, accurate and true data should appear in irregular patterns when plotted on a map. 

Blis’ proprietary technology, Smart Pin, filters out over 80% of the data received because it doesn’t meet our quality and accuracy standards. Our clients turn to us for high-quality data to better understand their customers and drive engagement and sales. This data has passed Blis’ stringent checks and is independently verified for data accuracy by Location Sciences. In addition, Blis uses blockchain technology for an immutable ledger of data provenance, providing assurance and visibility of data origin. 

With the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (PDPB) being discussed in Parliament, Indian businesses need to start thinking harder about how they are going to protect consumers. For many organisations, this may mean taking a close look at their data collection, storage and usage practices. The outcome of these regulations is that while data is the fuel that powers our industry, we can never forget that it is personal information that belongs to actual human beings, and we are responsible for safeguarding their privacy and rights. It’s not a responsibility that every company will be up to and as we saw in Europe when GDPR was enacted, many businesses withdrew operations altogether.

So far this week, we’ve discussed what real-world intelligence is and how it’s gathered, how to recognise accurate location data and ensure you’re getting the most reliable data and why it’s so important to place transparency high on the agenda when using data. Tomorrow we’ll look at Blockchain and how it can be used by the advertising industry. 

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