This bit got me thinking: “Applications of cookies and beacons and other tags to serving of digital ads do not necessarily clearly distinguish among data derived from the ad and data derived from server software or a publisher’s content management system.”

Without getting into too much [unnecessary] detail, I’d argue that indeed cookies (forget about beacons for now, as they simply distribute cookies and/or transfer data into/extract data from them) are indeed key to distinguishing data owners/ownership.

Simply, and I’d love to get your POV, isn’t it about right that the cookie’s domain is the key determinant of data ownership [and use/control]?

For example, despite the language in contracts and agreements to the contrary, I’d argue that, as determined by the foundational cookie domain, the really valuable data that is generated and distributed by advertisers using any flavour of ad serving platform for their web ad management and measurement(mine is a buy-side perspective), is owned [and controlled/limited] by the ad serving organisation e.g. doubleclick.net = DoubleClick (Google), atdmt.com = Atlas (Microsoft), serving-sys.com = Eyeblaster. That is to say, the cookies, what they contain, what they enable and their domain constructs are, or should be, central to the data ownership question.

If this is indeed the case, then the data is, in most cases, NOT owned or controlled by the advertiser. If the cookies, and data therein, were advertiser domain specific, then the data ownership question would be different…and clear.

Now, regarding the data in the database, well, that’s just a byproduct of ad tag, cookie and beacon technology, which is to say that I think you’re right when you write “just because a database compiles data, that doesn’t automatically make that data “owned” by the database.”

True, but shouldn’t one of these elements, from a buy-side/advertiser perspective, be determinant in the data ownership question?

What WPP is doing is interesting, but short-sighted and, probably more interestingly, unenforceable.

Again, nice piece.

James