If You Think Data is the Wild West, You’re Doing it Wrong

The 2020s have already been a decade like no other, and the rate of change in the data space has left participants with their heads spinning. We’ve seen surprising headlines, from the Security and Exchange Commission’s (SEC's) announcement in late 2021 of a settlement with App Annie, Inc. (which has now rebranded as data.ai) and its CEO for their deceptive practices and commission of securities fraud, to Apple's dramatic change to how they approach IDFA, to the rapid acceleration of new social channels. Throughout all of this commotion, Sensor Tower customers have continued to look to us for guidance on navigating the data space and its evolution over the next decade. While we expect to see the industry continue to rapidly evolve, we also believe the industry has and will continue to mature to match the huge potential that data provides to our economy. This is the first in a series outlining our thoughts on the bright future of the data space.

Every successful modern company knows that data is at the heart of good decision making and both the availability and applicability of data have ballooned with the adoption of digital and mobile. We live in an age where the amount of data available is measured in the zetabyte, with the amount of data created and consumed following an exponential growth curve. In the midst of this data explosion, it’ll be critical for companies to define how they philosophically approach and use data since the downstream impacts to users are meaningful. 

A common refrain one often hears is that data is still the Wild West. However, we believe the opposite: if you think data is the Wild West, you're doing it wrong. While there admittedly might be some companies out there that ignore or flout compliance and respectable data practices, they are increasingly becoming the exception, not the rule. Having the benefit of sitting at the exciting crossroads of data, SaaS, and the digital and mobile economies, it is clear that our customers are very thoughtful and intentional about what data sources they rely on, not only for their reliability and insights, but also for their compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

The truth is, as more and more data is captured, tracked, and analyzed, a company’s data practices are increasingly becoming a focus of regulatory agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), SEC, and national data protection authorities who are tasked with keeping data providers and their users accountable. With Sensor Tower, you can rest easy knowing that the intelligence products we provide are regularly and thoroughly reviewed for compliance with the applicable laws and regulations governed by these agencies.

As we will cover in this series of posts, Sensor Tower has always treated our responsibility to our customers and to the broader app and digital economy very seriously, particularly as it relates to data privacy and confidentiality, which have been principal tenets of our company from its founding. In fact, well before the implementation of GDPR and other recent privacy legislation, the Sensor Tower team thoughtfully built our panel apps with a privacy-driven approach, and we continue to today. We've worked hard to take extra precautions and minimize potential privacy risks when developing our panel apps. 

Whether you are a multinational consumer packaged goods manufacturer optimizing your digital advertising strategy, a mobile game developer benchmarking the performance of your latest title to its competition, or a Fortune 500 brand evaluating the decision to launch a mobile app, we understand that our platforms are at the core of million and billion dollar decision making. This responsibility instills in us a sober and relentless focus to do right by our customers and deliver on our promises.

We’re excited to share with you the rest of this blog series where we will dive into details on how everything we build is designed from the ground up with compliance at the forefront. We’ll touch on our approach to privacy, data sourcing, material nonpublic information (MNPI), transparency, security, and more. We’ll also dive into how this foundation sets up both us and the whole industry for a bright future at the center of digital evolution.

Sensor Tower was founded by two engineers nine years ago, and we are builders at heart. We build things to last, and that ethos carries through not only our technical infrastructure but our whole approach to building a company. From designing our marketing programs, to thinking through how our sales team engages with prospects, we like to get things right, and we measure twice before we cut. Check out our next installment, Compliance in the Alt Data Data Age, which will share details around our relentless focus on getting data and compliance right.