IAB Issues 10 Best Practices For Handling Big Data

At its 2014 Leadership Meeting this week in Palm Desert, CA, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Data Council released a new best practices document, titled "Handle with Care: 10 Steps to Good Data Stewardship."

The document lays out a series of 10 steps which aim to provide a solid foundation for data flow and a jumping-off point for future discussion of data supervision.

1. Make your data policies transparent - Tell your customers exactly how you will use their data through clear disclosures and contracts, and then make sure you stick to them.

2. Ensure and regularly verify data quality - Routinely check data to make sure it meets or exceeds the quality requirements for its intended use while repairing, augmenting, or rejecting data that does not meet those standards.

3. Guarantee data security - Implement firewalls, encryption, audit logs, and passwords to keep all data safe from unauthorized use or corruption. Extra precautions should be taken with more sensitive data, such as users' personally identifiable information.

4. Provide data protection - Implement appropriate backup systems, data replication, and other measures to make sure that data is not lost or accidentally deleted.

5. Use the right tools - Companies and organizations should use commercial data management solutions, while consumers should customize their browsers' privacy settings and search for other appropriate tools online.

6. Define a reasonable period for the retention of data - Clearly communicate to your users how long data will be retained to your users. Data often becomes inaccurate in a relatively short period of time, and many companies keep it on hand for longer than needed. Also, it is imperative that companies stay in compliance with laws and regulations regarding privacy.

7. Employ appropriate tagging implementation, maintenance, and other procedures - Make sure that all data is tagged with the proper level of sensitivity, or access permissions by the correct company, group or organization.

8. Make the value proposition for online behavioral advertising clear and explicit - Interactive advertising lowers the cost and increases the effectiveness of messaging for advertisers and marketers while providing clients with information on products and services they are likely to enjoy at a better price point.

9. Market your data and its power to help you reach specific audience segments, but do not exaggerate - When pitching your services to companies, make sure you are just as transparent as in your disclosures to consumers. If your capabilities are limited, make sure you say so.

10. Place non-proprietary data in the public domain - If information in your possession offers a public good, and is not of a proprietary nature, enlist the services of a government, nonprofit, or other organization or website to maintain this data for public access.

Of these ten steps, IAB Data Council EVP and COO Patrick Dolan said, "By following these 10 steps, marketers, ad networks, and every other link in the chain can drastically improve data stewardship. If all the necessary stakeholders can commit to these best practices, we'll be able to establish the type of top-grade, highly principled data stream that will fuel the digital marketing industry's rapid momentum. While there will be many more conversations to come, this report is a major step in the right direction on this issue."

To download "Handle with Care: 10 Steps to Good Data Stewardship," go here.