Part of digital media’s appeal is access to consumer data, but it comes burdened with legal and ethical responsibilities to make sure privacy is protected. A careless slip by a well-meaning employee or a focused attack from hackers unknown are both real threats to a brands’ digital reputation, which is why Omnicom CEO John Wren recently suggested agencies consider hiring chief privacy officers.
In the broader business community, the chief privacy officer is hardly a new concept. Companies such as Microsoft and IBM that play in large amounts of consumer data installed such roles years ago, as have less-famous direct-marketing companies. But thus far, the role hasn’t been necessary at ad agencies for a lot of reasons, top of the list being that data wasn’t always so crucial to the business. And when it was, it could be outsourced to a third party.
But as advertising becomes more intertwined with consumer data, especially in behavioral-targeting campaigns, and agencies become more deeply entrenched in the regulatory thicket of digital privacy, that could very well change.
So should agencies be taking Wren’s observations seriously and hiring a chief privacy officer?
Probably not right now. That was the consensus after I spoke to a number of players close to the issue. Still, it’s quite clear that every agency needs to figure out how consumer-privacy issues affects it and fast.
What I was told is this: All agencies need to understand whether and how consumer privacy issues touch their business. For digital shops and media buyers, for instance, it will be more of a priority than at purely creative shops working more in the crafting of ads than in their distribution. There does need to be oversight at the agency, everyone seems to agree, but not necessarily in the form of a c-suite executive for whom it’s the only duty.
“Embrace privacy, have consistent privacy messaging, have privacy programs, and have someone responsible for compliance,” advised Carla Michelotti, exec VP-chief legal, government and corporate affairs officer at Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett. “If that person is a chief privacy officer, they need to know that they’re going to be impacting marketing, IT, and finance. Knowing what I know about companies, that makes for an interesting dynamic.”
Michelotti said she’s wary of agencies appointing a chief privacy officer as though that hire alone solves the problem. There are underlying organizational challenges and personal liability that comes with the role. She favors the notion of privacy-by-design supported by the FTC. It’s been described as: “a roadmap to integrate privacy considerations into business models, product development cycle and new technologies.” The distinction here is between just giving someone a title that may or may not have any clout vs. baking privacy awareness into key processes.
Randall Rothenberg, president-CEO of the Internet Advertising Bureau, was warmer to the idea, with some key qualifications that recognize that hot-button political issue digital privacy has become.
“In the ideal world, what you would want to have is a chief data officer, because the uses and misuses of data transcends the privacy cliché,” he said. “But given the politically charged environment, because of the way anti-business opposition groups are looking at the issue, it may make perfect sense for agencies and media companies, and marketers to have chief privacy officers.”
To read the full story in Advertising Age, click here.
