KEY TERMS

Advertiser‍
‍Client‍
‍Cookie‍
‍Cross-Device Tracking‍
‍Data Hashing‍
‍Data Partner‍
‍De-Identified Data‍
‍Device‍
‍Data Synchronization
‍‍Interest-Based Ads‍
‍Mobile Advertising Identifiers‍
‍Non-Personally Identifiable Information‍
‍Pass-Through‍
‍People-Based Marketing‍
‍Personal Information‍
‍Pixel Tag‍
‍Publisher‍
‍DMS Direct Products‍
‍User

Advertiser

An advertiser is any business that wants to promote its brand, products or services. Advertisers may work with a variety of publishers, technology platforms, and data service providers like DMS Direct to help them reach their desired audiences.

Client

DMS Direct provides data-driven services to a variety of companies, enabling publishers to license their hashed registration data to ad tech companies in the digital ecosystem. Clients include: online publishers wishing to monetize the first party data they collect; data and advertising technology companies seeking more accurate (aggregated) people-based data for products such as onboarding, retargeting, personalization, attribution, cross-device marketing; and all other advertisers pursuing people-based marketing.

Cookie

A cookie is a small text file containing a string of characters this is placed on your browser or device when you visit a website. When you visit the website again, the cookie allows that site to recognize your browser. Cookies may store user preferences and other information. Cookies may involve the transmission of information from us to you and from you directly to us, to another party on our behalf, or to another party in accordance with its privacy policy. For example, cookies can store your session information for easy sign-in to a website or your language preferences or may allow sites to record your browsing activities – like what pages and content you’ve looked at, when you visited, and whether you clicked on an ad. The site or service that places a particular cookie has permission to read the contents of that cookie each time it communicates with your browser. Some cookies are set by the site you are visiting, and others are set by that site’s service partners.  Cookies may be placed in your browser by third-party advertising companies to help deliver the ads you see online. These “third-party cookies” may be used to “remember” parts of your online activities in order to deliver ads tailored to your interests. For example, if you read a movie review article online, a cookie may be used to note your interest in movies. As you continue to surf the web, you may see coupons to save money at a theater near you.

Cross-Device Tracking

Cross-device tracking refers to techniques used to detect unique internet users across their various devices in order to create a seamless picture of the user. There are two approaches to cross-device tracking; deterministic and probabilistic identifiers.  Deterministic data is where the user is tracked through a common actual identifier, such as a hashed or otherwise de-identified email address or other de-identified user ID. Probabilistic identifiers are created using various non-persistent attributes, such as from the various types of browser settings. In either case, you can see the benefits of cross-device tracking when you start streaming a movie on your laptop but want to finish watching it on your smartphone without taking extra steps by staying logged in across devices.  DMS Direct works with clients to use deterministic identifiers and other non-personal data to assist with similar ads being delivered to users across their multiple devices.

Data Hashing

Data hashing is a privacy protection technique that can transform personal information, such as an email address, into a string of random characters. This string uniquely identifies the data in question, but prevents the underlying data (and by extension a particular individual) from being personally identifiable. Unlike other encryption techniques, hashes are not meant to be reversed but may be compared to determine if they represent the same data. Synchronizing various sets of hashed data from multiple sources is at the core of DMS Direct's data synchronization services.

Data Partner

Data partners are companies that collect, aggregate, analyze, match, validate and share personal and/or non-personal information for a variety of business uses such as targeted advertising.  Data partners often work with advertisers publishers and other intermediaries in the digital ecosystem to help marketers understand their customers, create seamless user experiences across web, mobile and social engagement contexts, and deliver more relevant advertising.

De-Identified Data

De-Identified Data is akin to hashed data, in that it is not linked or reasonably linkable to  personally identifiable individuals. DMS Direct uses data hashing to de-identify email addresses or other data we receive from our clients.

Deterministic Identifier

This is a unique identifier that can be used to recognize a de-identified user, browser or device over time and across different websites and other digital contexts. In the case of our linkage and synchronization services, we utilize hashed email addresses, our unique DMS Direct ID, third party cookie IDs, and a unique mobile device identifiers.

Device

A device is a computer, such as a laptop, tablet or smartphone, that can be used to access our website or be associated with other devices or cookies through our cross-device linking services.

Data Synchronization

Data synchronization is the primary process by which publishers, data providers and service providers such as DMS Direct connects unique non-personal identifiers across separate engagement channels and data environments. DMS Direct Products utilize pixel tags, cookies and similar technologies to synchronize information between publishers and data partners. For more information please refer to our Product Privacy Policy.

Interest-Based Advertising

Interest-Based Advertising is facilitated by the collection of data across digital properties owned or operated by different entities for the purpose of delivering advertising based on preferences or interests known or inferred from the data collected.

Mobile Advertising Identifiers

The Advertising ID available on Android mobile devices and the Identifier for Advertising (“IDFA’) on iOS devices are examples of technologies commonly used for similar purposes as a cookie on platforms where cookies are not available or applicable. Most modern mobile devices (iOS, Android, and Windows 10 and above) provide mobile advertising identifiers. These are randomly-generated numbers that are associated with your device that often come with options to reset the identifier and opt-out of advertising across apps (“Cross-App Advertising”). They are included to provide advertisers a method to identify your devices without using a permanent device identifier, like your phone’s serial number.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information

This is information that on its own does not permit direct association with any specific individual in the real-world. For example, we consider the following to be non-personally identifiable information: zip code, browser type, cookie IDs, non-unique device identifiers, websites visited, and advertisements viewed or clicked. We also consider aggregated, de-identified and/or anonymized data to be non-personally identifiable information.

Pass-Through

DMS Direct does not provide hosted or managed data services on behalf of our clients, nor deliver any ads or email offers directly to you. Rather, we act as a conduit in the advertising value chain by linking, synchronizing, aggregating and sharing (passing-through) data to relevant third parties to help them facilitate relevant advertising.

People-Based Marketing

People-based marketing uses a combination of deterministic data and technologies to serve the most relevant messages to unique users across devices and channels. Hashed and otherwise de-identified email addresses are widely used to synchronize data, devices, and cookies back to previously engaged users or customers.

Personal Information

Personal information is data that can be used to identify or contact a particular individual, such as the individual’s name, email address phone number or postal address. When non-personal information is directly linked with personal information, this information is also treated as personal information.

Pixel Tag

A pixel tag is a type of technology placed on a website, or within the body of an email for the purpose of tracking activity on websites or when emails are opened or accessed, and is often used in combination with cookies. Pixel refers to the software code that is placed within a web page in order to trigger the placing of cookies and transmits information to us or our third party service providers. This enables two websites to share information. The resulting connection can include information such as a device’s IP address, the time a person viewed the pixel, an identifier associated with the browser or device, the type of browser being used and the URL of the web page from which the pixel was viewed. A pixel tag is also known as a web beacon or Clear GIFs. There may or may not be a visible graphic image associated with the pixel, and often the image is designed to blend into the background of a web page or email.

Publisher

A publisher is a website or mobile content owner or provider. Publishers are DMS Direct clients who share de-identified personal information with DMS Direct in accordance with our Product Privacy Policy and terms of service. Our publisher clients typically use DMS Direct services to supplement their advertising revenues.

DMS Direct Products

Please learn about DMS Direct's data activation and licensing products here.

User

Means an end-user of digital properties and devices, such as a website visitor.