Interview

As industry fights UDID phoney war, Fiksu's Craig Palli says first party cookies offer best compromise

Process will takes months to refine and agree

As industry fights UDID phoney war, Fiksu's Craig Palli says first party cookies offer best compromise
With the deprecation of UDIDs fading from a crisis into a low-level concern, the industry is taking stock.

Craig Palli, VP, business development at monetisation outfit Fiksu, is nonplussed by the situation, however.

The way he characterises it is much like words of The Byrds; 'There's nothing new under the sun'.

"We saw much the same thing with cookies in the desktop online world in the late 1990s, when everyone started appointing chief privacy officers," he says.

In the end, a solution that worked for everyone was found. His view is the same thing will happen in mobile.

Ready to roll

"The industry is moving very quickly. There are a lot of conversations going on behind the scenes," he says.

The problem, according to Palli, is there's no ready-made 'one size fits all solution'.

Publishers want a seamless replacement for UDIDs that will work and provide a good user experience. Advertising networks are looking at more advanced techniques such as digital fingerprinting. It's an interesting approach, but is less accurate in terms of tracking.

In the meantime, while all ad and monetisation companies have implemented UDID-replacements of some form in their SDKs, the vast majority of publishers continue to use UDIDs, at least until Apple really does start rejecting apps.

"If nothing else, they're testing the SDKs and new techniques against UDIDs to gain understanding of how they work and test their accuracy," Palli says.

Tasty cookies

Fiksu's approach is pragmatic.

"We're being even-handed and supporting the different approaches. Each has its own pros and cons," Palli says.

"I think there will be fragmentation for six months, but within 12 months, we will have converged on a single solution."

As to what that solution might be, Palli again looks back to his experience of the desktop online world.

"Everyone agreed the first party cookie provided the best balance between personal privacy and industry needs," he explains.

Something that's already been mentioned by Palli in the context is that Apple might anoint it as its chosen solution in iOS 6. But one issue is it would require the launch of Safari when an iOS app or game is started.

"The problem is it doesn't provide a seamless launch process for publishers," agrees Palli. "Although it's not impossible this could be worked into a game's overall user experience.

"Certainly it [first party cookies] is not yet fully baked, but it appears to be closest thing we have to a solution that will work across the industry."

UDONTs

And, more generally, Palli argues that the opportunity to come up with something new is what's most important.

"It's a good thing for publishers, advertisers and consumers," he says.

"Let's move beyond UDIDs."
Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.