InfoSum: Identity Linking for Marketing

InfoSum Launches InfoSum Bridge to Enhance Customer Identity Linking

InfoSum, a company specializing in federated third-party data enrichment, has announced the release of its new product, InfoSum Bridge. This launch is intended to substantially improve the platform’s capabilities in linking customer identities.

Expanding Identity Capabilities

According to a press release, InfoSum Bridge integrates a variety of identity providers across all identity types – encompassing both online and offline data, and supporting deterministic, probabilistic, and cohort-level matching techniques.

Early adoption of the product has been seen with prominent players in the data and advertising sectors, including Merkle, MMA, and Experian.

Facilitating Data Enrichment

The core concept behind InfoSum Bridge is to allow businesses to continue enriching their first-party data. This is achieved by establishing connections, through InfoSum’s platform, with other “trusted partners” who may possess additional information about the same users.

Currently, InfoSum reports having 50 enterprise customers utilizing InfoSum Bridge. The initial adopters are all active within the digital marketing landscape.

A Privacy-Focused Approach

Founded in 2016 as CognitiveLogic, InfoSum offers a “privacy-safe” data enrichment solution. Its technical architecture enables data queries and insight generation across multiple databases, while maintaining each database as a distinct silo. This prevents the direct transfer of raw data between entities.

This approach is increasingly important given the decline in third-party data collection, spurred by privacy concerns and stricter data protection regulations like Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Shift to First-Party Data

The focus is now shifting towards first-party data. However, businesses reliant on extensive data for profiling and scoring are hesitant to depend solely on internally collected information.

InfoSum positions itself as a “neutral data collaboration platform” to address this need.

Responding to Industry Changes

Companies previously accustomed to readily available personal data, due to widespread third-party data collection and less stringent data governance, are now seeking alternatives. This shift is contributing to InfoSum’s growth.

The impending deprecation of third-party cookies by Google further underscores the need for new solutions.

Growth and Market Positioning

Founder Nick Halstead states that InfoSum is growing at a faster rate than Slack at a comparable stage. He describes InfoSum as the solution replacing outdated data practices.

InfoSum is likened to a “Cisco router for customer data,” facilitating connections without owning the data itself.

InfoSum Bridge: The Next Generation

The launch of InfoSum Bridge represents the next step in building a comprehensive network to overcome the fragmentation of identity solutions and technical frameworks within the industry.

InfoSum initially showcased its first product in 2018, offering early adopters a preview of its potential.

Enhanced Capabilities

Over the past three years, InfoSum has significantly expanded its pipeline, incorporating support for multiple ID vendors and types, as well as adding probabilistic matching capabilities for users without existing IDs.

A spokesperson explained that InfoSum Bridge builds upon existing infrastructure, expanding customer identity linking and enabling secure, privacy-focused data collaboration. This includes new product enhancements and strategic partnerships.

The Future of Identity Connectivity

InfoSum aims to be “the future of identity connectivity.” However, competition is increasing as the adtech industry develops alternative tracking systems and ID services in anticipation of Google’s cookie deprecation.

The company seeks to establish itself as a trusted, independent layer capable of linking these diverse solutions.

Privacy Implications

The impact of this technology on internet users’ privacy remains uncertain. If it enables continued manipulative microtargeting, it may not represent genuine progress.

InfoSum has previously emphasized its approach to avoid individual identification through matching, implementing measures like bin size limitations. However, the platform is configurable, placing privacy controls in the hands of its customers. Data overlaps could also potentially lead to complete individual matches.

Security Advantages

The security aspects appear more robust. Proper data management by InfoSum, coupled with independent audits and its decentralized architecture, offers an improvement over scenarios where entire databases are shared between businesses with potentially lax security practices.

Industry Validation

InfoSum’s PR materials include positive quotes from Merkle, MMA, and Experian, highlighting their satisfaction with the platform’s ability to maintain “data-driven” marketing while claiming “privacy-safe” practices.

However, the underlying issue remains: technical architectures that facilitate data modeling and profiling, even through pattern matching, do not necessarily equate to privacy as commonly understood.

Comparison to Other Solutions

Similar concerns apply to Google’s proposed replacement for tracking cookies, Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC), which also relies on federation and has been criticized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for potentially amplifying predatory targeting.

The Need for Regulatory Oversight

The marketing industry’s persistent pursuit of microtargeting underscores the necessity for robust regulatory oversight of adtech. This is crucial to prevent societal harms such as biased advertising and the manipulation of voters.

Ultimately, privacy is a collective good, and protecting it requires a comprehensive oversight architecture.