Thanks To Apple, Customer-Data Platforms Are Getting a Second Chance

In the wake of data privacy changes by mobile platforms last year, the enterprise tech world is suddenly very interested in customer-data platforms (CDPs). From a report: With Twilio's acquisition of Segment, Treasure Data's $234 million fundraise late last year and Salesforce's push into CDPs, the hot new buzzword is potentially a hot new market. "The way I think about [CDPs] is, it's trying to create a 360-degree view of each of your customers to help you more accurately identify what would most resonate with this customer," said Derek Zanutto, a general partner at CapitalG. The term first started appearing in mainstream conversations back in 2017. In short, CDPs are centralized places to store all the first-party data a company collects from its customers. "It's fundamentally a data platform that unifies the data, and processes it, and then activates the profiles across many channels," said Treasure Data CEO Kazuki Ohta. The key is not just collecting and storing that data, but making it available to use.

The need for CDPs first arose as companies realized they had this data but didn't know what to do with it. "What we're seeing that a lot of brands do is effectively build a data lake or a master data management system, where there's a lot of data coming together potentially," said Ryan Fleisch, head of Product Marketing for Adobe's CDP. "But where a lot of brands are looking for further partnership is: How do I make sense of that data, activate it and make a decision off of it?"

"The transformation of the data, the ability to personalize that customer information, I think is a key value prop of the customer data platform," said Twilio Segment Vice President Jodi Alperstein. "And really knowing that 360 view of the customer and really being able to identify them, and then be able to put it into action." It's also why CDPs are most commonly talked about in a marketing context, because it's the most natural extension of using data about customers. After Apple and Google restricted the use of third-party cookies in apps and on the web, marketers needed to find new sources of customer information.

Please we need legislation...

[Lohrno]

I don't want these large data collection companies to have enough on me that they could make a convincing AI. We need a rule like cannot sell or distribute customer data.

Re:

[Virtucon]

There's already a wealth of data on every consumer and your state and federal governments sell it to third parties. Rent a place to live? Your landlord will most likely sell information about you while gladly reporting to credit agencies about your timely rent checks.
Own a home or get a mortgage? Mortgage lenders love to sell your data as well as your local taxing authorities.
It all makes money for them and they're allowed to do it.
Yes, laws would fix it but then again, the credit reporting agencies, banks,

Worse when the smaller players do it

[Catvid-22]

I think it's worse when these smaller, more obscure Big Data companies do it. At least with FB, Google and Microsoft (?), there are visible sites you can picket, virtually or in person.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Forget that. Let's nuke it from orbit, just to be sure.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

And they can keep it forever. Suddenly the right to be forgotten seems like a good idea, huh?

It's like crack for corporations

[93 Escort Wagon]

These companies had unfettered access to all this data for quite a few years. Now they seemingly can't figure out how to survive without getting their fix.

Great...

[QuietLagoon]

... more algorithms to use and abuse our private data.

Honda does it well... using paper

[davecb]

My local Honda dealer knows I bought a car, and set me a few ads for accessories. Three years later, it's sending me ads for new models. On paper. Tucked into envelopes and dropped into the mail.

My old Subaru dealer knew I had bought a car too, but they're computerized. They started sending me on-line ads for a second Subaru. For my other foot, perhaps?

I read these stories...

[Anonymous Coward]

all I can think of is Bob Seger's - Feel Like a Number.

For anyone panicking about this

[rsilvergun]

the point of these is for a company to put all it's customer data in 1 place so that if somebody says "delete my data" you can do that and know for sure it's been deleted.

At least that's why companies are interested in it. They don't want/need somebody to sell them more magic snake oil to tease out more sales. They've got that stuff in spades.

US needs European style GDPR

[jah8303]

We need legislation in the US that makes it clear this data belongs to the consumer and these companies need permission to use it.

Horse has well and truly bolted

[Canberra1]

You cannot undo personal data theft. Some call it adtech. Minors are also having their pictures and contacts scraped up. Your politicians - have done nothing. So vote them out. I have just had one unsolicited phone call on the do not call register, who told me I must have given permission on Fakebook or the like - in the terms of acceptance. I told him I would buy $5000 of product if he could prove that statement ( because that 92yo's name never used the internet, ever ). Everyone is stealing and selling cu