TruEffect offers alternative to third-party cookies

A new targeting platform could give marketers even more insight into user's interests, but will it also invade user privacy? That is the question many privacy advocates have about the TruEffect platform, which offers first-party cookies to marketers.

by Kristina Knight

Most targeting platforms focused on user behaviors offer third-party cookies. These are a relatively anonymous offering which notes dates and times but no personal information to marketers for targeting purposes. The TruEffect platform offers first-party cookies, those that companies such as Amazon.com use to track specific users. This gives marketers more information about users, which will help in targeting relevant messages to users at a time when they are likely to act on those messages.

TruEffect President and CEO Ron Hill said, “Consumers want merchants they know and trust to reach them with personalized offers, yet they want that dialogue to be directly with the merchant – not an unknown third party. DirectServe eliminates the middleman.”

While the technology behind TruEffect is revolutionary from a targeting standpoint, privacy advocates have fears about it. These advocates say first-party or third-party isn't the biggest concern; the concern is that many users don't know their time online is being tracked.

TruEffect says their program offers users the ability to opt-out of the system from advertisers' websites.