New Rules of Advertising: Zero Data

Zero data does not mean “no data of any kind”, it just means “no data with risk”.

Mikko
3 min readMar 31, 2021

Zero here refers to quantity, there is zero quantity.

Data here refers to data that is in reference to a user.

Zero Data means the absence of user data.

Design and engineering are the principal means through which Zero Data is achieved.

Zero Data advertising systems are designed in a way that eradicates dependency on user data.

Zero Data advertising systems are furthermore engineered in a way that prohibits user data from manifesting as a result of the system.

Such systems do not distinguish between personally identifiable and non-identifiable data.

Such a system does not distinguish between types of user data due to regulations, standards, or other factors.

All data relating to IDs and handlers, groupings and cohorts, and any other data that can be connected back to such identifiers, is here considered user data.

Therefore, Zero Data refers to the complete absence of user data in a given advertising system.

There are two groups of Zero Data advertising systems; where there is a guarantee, and where there is no guarantee.

Guaranteed Zero Data systems commit to a computational guarantee.

Regular Zero Data systems use propriety code or 3rd-parties to deliver advertisements.

Guaranteed systems initially achieve computational guarantees by delivering advertisements using unmodified open-source code.

Guaranteed systems can be readily audited, but a regular non-guaranteed system can not be audited.

Even a Guaranteed system will initially depend on trust in that it is actually using the open-source codebase in the running production system.

Eventually Guaranteed Zero Data will be solved cryptographically and will become trustless.

Three levels of trust in Zero Data systems

In all modes of advertising targeting where risk (with respect to user data) is present, trust is the key unsolved problem.

There will be three degrees of trust in Zero Data advertising systems:

  • Non-guaranteed (blind trust)
  • Soft guaranteed (open-source delivery codebase)
  • Hard guaranteed (cryptographically sound trustless system)

3rd-party verification will be proposed as a solution, but it is not viable.

3rd-party verification is not viable, because there then arises the same trust problem with the verification party.

Is Zero Data advertising less effective?

Zero Data does not make any argument about the value of user data, but instead makes an argument about the value of other things.

Zero Data approaches emphasize creativity, interactivity, geography, context, and other relevant aspects of advertising.

Advertising budgets are finite. This means that when part of the budget goes to user data, it is away from somewhere else.

In Zero Data advertising the objective is to find the most suitable targets for the part of the investment that is available (due to not being invested in user data).

Zero Data advertising can be as effective (or not effective) as user data advertising.

Thanks for your time! If you have a few seconds more, hit that clap button and share in your socials.

--

--

Mikko

Worked with machine intelligence for 15 years, and built the interwebs for 25. Nothing here is my own.