AiThority Interview with Daniel Sepulveda, SVP for Policy and Advocacy at MediaMath

Hi Daniel, tell us about your role and the team/technology that you handle at MediaMath?

My role at MediaMath is focused on shaping and communicating MediaMath’s policies and practices around the consumer value proposition, privacy protection, and public policy. I report to the CEO and execute with teams across the organization.

We saw some of the biggest M&As in Martech and Adtech in 2019. These deals are targeting technology to improve data consolidation and privacy standards. What are your observations?

With the rising importance of privacy reflected in new laws in the states and abroad, the value of first-party data and privacy management tools has risen correspondingly.

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Advertising experiences have evolved significantly in the last 3-4 years. Tell us about data privacy through the internet, dotcom and now social media and AI era?

Data privacy became an issue as it relates to advertising and the internet upon the internet’s commercialization in the late 1990s. The first recommendation for a national data privacy law in the US came out of the Federal Trade Commission in 1999 and it was built on fair information practice principles. Because the internet was a nascent industry and companies on it were being born every day during the dotcom boom, American legislators were reluctant to regulate the industry. Europe has always moved somewhat faster than the U.S. in this space.

Today, with the scale of internet connectivity, the user base of social media properties, and the additional visibility into data that AI enables, the importance of privacy in the view of policymakers and consumers has risen dramatically and both the market and legislators are responding to the demand for more rules and restrictions around data access and use.

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What roles have Google, Amazon, and Facebook played in this transformation?

Google, Amazon, and Facebook have the largest stores of personal information on their users in the history of the world. Historically, these companies have pushed against regulation and any new privacy laws but have changed over the last two years and are working more proactively to shape the law that is inevitably coming.

What’s next for CCPA and how would it affect the “Future of Advertising” from July 2020?

Interpretation of the law in finalized regulations is still pending and the Attorney General’s approach to enforcement will dictate the short and medium-term repercussions.

Either way, the future of advertising will rely more on first-party data than before, contextual advertising and innovation in it will rise in importance, and the marketer’s ability to win the trust of consumers will dictate their ability to communicate with them and maintain their business over time.

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COVID-19 has exposed chinks in data management, leaving personal data susceptible to cyberthreats. What is MediaMath doing to safeguard user data, and still continue to deliver Customer experience?

Privacy and security have become table stakes for mature digital advertising companies. MediaMath sees safeguarding user data as an integral part of delivering the experience our customers expect, not a hindrance to doing so.

We have a robust privacy and information security program led by our Data Policy and Governance team. They are responsible for designing strategic policies and processes around privacy, data use, security, and compliance that support the safe growth of our business while protecting and empowering consumers and our clients.

Tag the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read.

If it were one person outside of MediaMath, then I would love to hear what Sheila Colclasure at Kinesso has to say.

Thank you, Daniel! That was fun and hope to see you back on AiThority soon.