eyeo, the pioneers in creating a sustainable value exchange between advertisers, publishers and online users has announced a strategic research partnership with Fractal, an open source protocol for exchanging ad-relevant data in a fair and open way. The two companies will work jointly on the research and development of a new open source standard to govern data exchange.
This partnership will combine eyeo’s latest product, Crumbs, which offers a tracking-free web experience, and Fractal’s tried-and-tested technology that focuses on allowing data verifiability while enabling data ownership and privacy.
eyeo will support Fractal in building an open source protocol for exchanging information online, based on blockchain and done in a privacy-preserving manner. The protocol shall enable the verifiability of data while ensuring user privacy and data ownership. The two companies will also support the research and development effort for a new, widely-accepted industry standard to govern data exchange and break up proprietary data silos. The web keeps evolving, and part of that shall be a more purposeful infrastructure for data and value exchange, designed to ensure fair usage for all involved parties.
For consumers, this means full control over who should be able to access their personal data and on what terms. And once the consumer is no longer interested in sharing their information, they will simply be able to revoke the access. For advertisers and publishers, the protocol that eyeo and Fractal are collaborating on will offer a sustainable alternative and stable value system to ensure that the content we all benefit from will be incentivized properly and the web can remain a free, accessible place.
Rotem Dar, Director of Media Operations at eyeo, states, “It’s clear that our online selves are getting closer to our physical selves, a process that will only accelerate in the upcoming years, and one that a lot of us are wary about. Especially now, we have to continue our mission at eyeo of empowering users by putting them in control of a fair and profitable web, where they feel safe with their data. Fractal’s vision aims for similar user empowerment and we can’t wait to see its progress.”
Fractal Founder & CEO Julian Leitloff says, “We are thrilled to work with eyeo and industry pioneers such as Rotem Dar and the wider eyeo team. With a shared vision of democratizing data and giving users more control of their privacy, this partnership represents an opportunity to create a level playing field for data availability in the ad industry. We look forward to learning from eyeo and building solutions that could be used by eyeo’s impressive user base, as well as the rest of the web.”
With a growing demand from online consumers for enhanced privacy and data ownership on the one hand, and the reliance of online content on ads monetization on the other, Dar and Leitloff are convinced there is a true opportunity to drive significant change in the way data is collected, stored and used by participants of the online economy. According to Leitloff, “this change in user expectation surprisingly resonates with the aspiration of media buyers to have the same level of transparency and trust over the data they execute their strategy on, benefiting all parties.”
The partnership will be a beacon for change in how transparency and user privacy are treated online.
About eyeo
eyeo creates a sustainable, fair online ecosystem by building, monetizing and distributing ad-filtering technology. By leveraging distribution partnerships, we bring ad-filtering technology everywhere, giving users control while providing user-friendly monetization. This is supported by our own desktop and mobile products, such as Adblock Plus, Adblock Browser and Flattr. Through the reach of our products and partnerships our technology runs on over 200 million devices.
About Fractal
Fractal is an open source zero-margin protocol that defines a basic standard to exchange user information in a fair and open way. Fractal enables data-verifiability while allowing user privacy and data ownership. Fractal’s mission is to create fair access to data and make sure the builders and bloggers of the free web get paid.
Photo by Niv Singer on Unsplash