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Taking Control of Your Data with Server Side GTM - InfoTrust at Durability Summit London 2023

4.5/5The presentation provides comprehensive, well-structured insights into server-side GTM implementation with a strong focus on privacy considerations and business value. The speaker effectively balances technical concepts with strategic implications, using clear examples and visuals to illustrate complex ideas about data ownership and control in the evolving privacy landscape.
Durability Summit London 2023 | Taking Control of Your Data with Server Side GTM | InfoTrust

In this insightful presentation from the Durability Summit London 2023, Tyler Blatt from InfoTrust explores the transformative shift from client-side to server-side data collection in the evolving privacy landscape. The video, presented in English, offers a comprehensive overview of why server-side GTM (Google Tag Manager) is becoming essential for businesses seeking to maintain control over their first-party data. Blatt begins by examining how the digital advertising ecosystem evolved, from contextual advertising to the third-party cookie era, and why this infrastructure is now failing in the face of privacy regulations and changing user expectations. He emphasizes that privacy should be seen not as a burden but as an opportunity to better engage with customers and become more efficient. The presentation highlights several key limitations of client-side tracking: poor governance, performance issues, public data exposure, and limited control over where data is sent. In contrast, server-side GTM offers significant advantages including data ownership, explicit routing, the ability to enrich and process data before distribution, improved privacy through encryption, support for diverse data streams, and direct integration with data warehouses. One of the most compelling aspects of the talk is Blatt's emphasis on the importance of asking the right questions of your data and building systems that can answer those questions effectively. He argues that server-side infrastructure gives businesses the agility, control, and ownership needed to adapt to regulatory changes while maintaining valuable insights. At gdpr-server-tracking.eu, we find this presentation particularly relevant to our European audience. While Tyler presents a strong case for server-side GTM, implementing this solution with EU-based infrastructure adds another critical layer of GDPR compliance. Our solution offers all the benefits discussed in the video, with the added advantages of EU-based servers, EU-owned hosting, and specialized features for handling personal data. For businesses concerned about data sovereignty and international data transfers, our bare metal hosting in Finland provides a compliant alternative to cloud-based solutions that may involve complex data transfer mechanisms. By combining the technical capabilities of server-side GTM with our EU-focused infrastructure, companies can take full advantage of this architectural shift while maintaining strict adherence to European data protection standards. This video serves as an excellent primer for understanding why server-side tracking is becoming essential, and why choosing the right hosting infrastructure is equally important for European businesses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about "Durability Summit London 2023 | Taking Control of Your Data with Server Side GTM | InfoTrust"

Server-Side GTM is a data collection architecture that moves tag processing from the user's browser to a company-owned server. It's becoming essential because it provides better data ownership, explicit routing control, enhanced privacy through encryption, and the ability to process data before distribution, all while addressing the limitations of client-side tracking in today's privacy-focused landscape.

Client-side tracking suffers from poor governance, performance issues (slow page loading), public data exposure (all data visible in the browser), and limited control over where data is sent. Server-Side GTM addresses these by moving processing to a controlled server environment, improving page performance, enhancing data privacy, and providing explicit control over data routing.

Server-Side GTM helps with GDPR compliance by giving businesses control over data processing, allowing them to strip or encrypt personal identifiers before sending to third parties, providing explicit governance over where data is sent, and enabling regional data processing to meet local regulations.

Hosting Server-Side GTM on EU-based servers is crucial for European businesses because it ensures data processing occurs within EU jurisdiction, simplifies GDPR compliance, eliminates concerns about international data transfers, and provides greater data sovereignty compared to US-based cloud solutions.

Server-Side GTM improves website performance by moving tag processing off the client's browser, reducing the number of HTTP requests, freeing up TCP connections, and decreasing the JavaScript load on the page. This results in faster page loading times and potentially better SEO rankings.

Server-Side GTM enables true data ownership by allowing businesses to collect raw data directly into their own data warehouses, process it according to their needs, and maintain control over how it's distributed. This creates a first-party data foundation that isn't locked behind third-party platforms and can be accessed, analyzed, and actioned independently.

Our EU-based hosting solution enhances Server-Side GTM's privacy capabilities by providing bare metal servers in Finland (EU jurisdiction), EU-owned hosting infrastructure, no reliance on third-party cloud providers that might be subject to non-EU data access laws, and additional privacy features like advanced hashing and filtering capabilities specifically designed for GDPR compliance.

Yes, Server-Side GTM can collect data from virtually any source including IoT devices, in-store kiosks, production systems, and any other digital touchpoint. As a web application that accepts HTTP requests, it provides a unified collection point for all your business data streams regardless of origin.