DMEXCO Column: The Future of Privacy and Addressability
A DMEXCO column by Evgeny Popov.
2025 – Future of Data Privacy and Addressability
The future of data privacy and addressability in digital marketing is at a pivotal juncture, driven by the confluence of advancing privacy regulations and evolving business models. The foundations of addressability — how advertisers reach and target consumers — are being redefined by a shifting landscape where identity, access to data, and the open web’s availability are shrinking. At the same time, walled gardens such as Google and Meta continue to grow their dominance, capturing a significant share of global advertising revenue.
In 2022, Evgeny Popov noted that the marketing ecosystem was facing unprecedented challenges in his original article, “The Future of Addressability in the $100B Market.” (alert: jargon heavy!) At that time, the industry was grappling with the phase-out of third-party cookies, increased regulatory scrutiny, and a lack of cohesive identity solutions. Fast forward to today, and these issues has only intensified, with businesses forced to adapt quickly or risk losing their ability to engage effectively with consumers.
A Critical Inflection Point
The marketing ecosystem is experiencing a critical inflection point. On one hand, we have access to more data than ever before. However, paradoxically, this has coincided with decreased access to consumer information due to privacy concerns and regulatory changes. Identity, which was once anchored by cookies and mobile IDs, no longer has a “common currency” across platforms, making it harder for brands to maintain a unified view of their consumers. Additionally, the open internet — once a vast and targetable space — is shrinking as walled gardens like Google, Meta, and Amazon consolidate their power.
Recent data from GroupM (2023) highlights the growing concentration of advertising revenue among these major players. By 2030, Google is projected to capture $355.8 billion in revenue, accounting for 27.8% of the global market. Meta will hold 18.7% with $243.5 billion in revenue, while Amazon follows with $123.7 billion (9.5%) and ByteDance with $82.9 billion (6.4%). These figures underscore the shift towards a more closed and controlled ecosystem, where advertisers have fewer opportunities to reach consumers outside these platforms.
A Long Time Coming
This evolution has been in the making for several years, driven by the implementation of privacy frameworks like GDPR, CCPA, and Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP). Apple’s introduction of ITP in 2017, followed by its full third-party cookie blocking in 2021, marked a turning point for the industry. Google announced the phase-out of third-party cookies in 2020 — now, those plans have been cancelled entirely. Alongside these changes, regulations like the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) and the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) have set new standards for data protection and consumer privacy.
These legislative actions reflect a broader global trend toward prioritizing consumer data rights. As a result, today’s open web is becoming increasingly untrackable. Currently, only 35% of the open web is addressable by advertisers. This number is expected to drop to just 5%, making almost all of the web untrackable for advertisers. These seismic shifts are pushing marketers to explore privacy-first strategies and rethink how they manage data.
Innovations in Privacy-First Strategies
In response to these challenges, businesses are embracing innovative privacy-first strategies. One such approach is widening the repertoire of available data, shifting from reliance on third-party cookies to alternative forms of addressability. Here are five key areas where this evolution is taking place, in order of descending addressable scale:
#1 Contextual Targeting: Advancements in real-time content targeting are moving beyond Natural Language Processing (NLP) to more sophisticated Natural Language Understanding (NLU) techniques. This allows advertisers to serve ads based on the context of the content consumers are engaging with, rather than tracking their behavior across the web.
#2 Audience Translation: Audience-to-activation platform translation is becoming more refined, with synthetic populations created through data curation on supply-side platforms (SSP) rather than demand-side platforms (DSP). This shift enables more precise targeting while maintaining privacy compliance.
#3 Hyper-Local Targeting: Geo-intelligence and occasions-intelligence are driving hyper-local advertising, which allows brands to target consumers based on their location (geospatial data) and real-time context. This is particularly useful for businesses looking to capitalize on moment-based marketing.
#4 1st Party Data AI Modeling: Federated identity management (thanks to Google’s FLoC cohort methodology) and first-party data (1PD) strategies are becoming essential as brands look to maintain control over their customer data. AI models that leverage 1PD can create predictive insights while adhering to privacy regulations.
#5Clean Rooms: Data clean rooms, powered by companies like InfoSum, Snowflake, and Habu, are gaining traction. These environments allow brands to combine their data with partners in a privacy-compliant manner, enabling effective targeting without sharing personally identifiable information (PII).
Final Thoughts
The future of data privacy and addressability is now at a critical crossroads, as predicted in Popov’s 2022 article. Since then, the landscape has only intensified. The phase-out of third-party cookies, stricter privacy laws, and the growing dominance of walled gardens have forced brands to rethink how they engage consumers. Privacy-first strategies are no longer optional — they are essential. To stay competitive, businesses must innovate, focusing on first-party data, contextual targeting, and clean room solutions. Those who adapt swiftly to these changes will lead the next era of digital marketing, while others risk falling behind in an increasingly fragmented and privacy-conscious ecosystem.
The key to success will be in finding balance — leveraging data in ways that respect consumer privacy while still driving meaningful engagement.
