As GDPR approaches, marketers are moving away from their reliance on third-party data

With the General Data Protection Regulation (

GDPR) soon to be in full force, marketers are looking to move away from their reliance on third-party data.

GDPR is a set of sweeping rules that govern the handling of European Union users’ data, no matter where they are located. The deadline for enforcement of the legislation is May 25.

What is third-party data?

First, let’s define what we’re talking about. Every business uses some form of customer data, mostly first-party, which means that the company has collected and stored the data itself. This data is used to manage current customers. But when companies want to find new customers, they use third-party cookies to target and retarget prospective customers across multiple touch points — a practice that some marketers say is already dying.

Omer Artun, CEO and founder of customer data platform provider AgilOne, explains.

“The idea of third-party data basically pulls from two areas,” Artun said. “First, there is the original reason third-party data became important to marketers, which is that they wanted to buy categories of potential buyers based on socioeconomic status, age, income, etc.; in other words, third-party data became important for data append use cases. The second reason third-party data became important was because ad systems became dependent on it. Their business model relies on cookie sharing across the board.”

[Read the rest of this story at MarTech Today.]