As data remains the backbone of digital advertising and regulatory scrutiny continues to grow, technologists are uniquely positioned to influence the industry’s future.
At AFROTECH™ 2024, Juliette Stancil, senior assistant general counsel of data privacy at Intuit Inc. — the parent company of TurboTax, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, and Credit Karma — led a workshop tackling the intersection of digital advertising and data privacy.
Stancil unpacked current challenges, evolving platform rules, and privacy-first innovations — equipping attendees with the insights needed to navigate and influence a rapidly shifting landscape.
“I would encourage anyone to really read through privacy settings and the privacy policy of any of the places you tend to visit or where you ingest content,” Stancil shared early in the session. “And you might be surprised at the number of capabilities you have to set permissions around what gets collected and what gets used, particularly for marketing and advertising purposes.”
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During the discussion, Stancil went into great detail about cookies — the small pieces of data stored in browsers that remember user preferences and browsing behavior — explaining how they enhance user experience and power targeted advertising, which translates to higher conversion rates for brands.
While cookies offer significant theoretical value, in practice they raise serious governance concerns when collecting large amounts of user data without adequate transparency.
“Some of these cookies, which are third-party cookies, they actually share data with third parties as the name suggests,” Stancil said. “And in doing so, those cookies end up sharing personal information with brands that you might not have ever been a part of. So it presents a lot of privacy issues from regulators, which is why there’s a lot of energy and talk around regulating the digital ecosystem.”
From a legislative perspective, there’s growing concern over how much data platforms collect — not just for advertising, but for potential government surveillance, as law enforcement can access this data through subpoenas.
Emerging technologies like data privacy and generative artificial intelligence (AI), which can personalize content more effectively, are also under scrutiny. Many lawmakers crafting policies don’t really understand how the tech works or the value it brings when used responsibly — a disconnect that Stancil said risks leading to overly restrictive laws that prevent innovation rather than encourage it.
“Without innovation, we’re going to continue to be in a world where there’s a bunch of cookies that get set,” Stancil said. She noted that, in many cases, tracking a cookie’s path once it is stored in a browser can be a challenging audit trail, making it difficult to determine where the data ends up.
“And with the administration that will be coming in, I’m certain that privacy is probably on the bottom of the list, so it probably won’t be anytime soon, where we actually have a comprehensive privacy law at the federal level,” Stancil added. “And so that means, of course, that it’s up to us.”
As a result, the AdTech ecosystem — under pressure from lawmakers and privacy advocates — is forcing companies to find ways to comply with new laws that demand more transparency, notice, and user control while still delivering targeted, high-impact ads that drive value.
So, what will it take to help guide a successful transition to a more privacy-enhancing AdTech model? Stancil outlined four key pillars: thought partnership, which comes from collaborating with people open to challenging assumptions and experimenting with new ideas; adoption of Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs), which can implement tools like data clean rooms; an agile mindset that allows people to test, learn, fail fast, and iterate; and consumer expectations.
As a reminder to users, she pointed out: “You don’t have to accept the cookie banner. They present ’em to you. And many may seem that they don’t give you choice. It does take a little bit of digging, and we call those deceptive designs, but for the most part, you generally will have an ability to turn off at least third-party trackers if you’re in any of the 20 states that have enacted data privacy laws.” These laws require companies to offer more choices to users about how their data is collected and used.
“That’s actually a legal requirement that brands allow you or provide you the capability to opt out,” she added.
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