If you’re a marketer, you likely know or have heard of first, second, and third-party data (RIP cookies) and if you work in an analytics role in marketing, you’ve probably been asked a million questions about data ownership, privacy, etc. in the last five years.

I have exciting news for you: we have come up with a new type of data ownership, just to keep things interesting. Or have we? Are we naming something that has existed for a long time?

Most people would currently define zero-party data as something like this:

data that is proactively or intentionally shared by consumers with brands, marketers, etc. A value exchange occurs and a cognitive decision to share this data is made by a consumer.

But haven’t we been doing this? Many brands, services, products, etc. have shifted to a model that provides a clear value exchange a long time ago- otherwise, nobody will sign up, accept cookies, submit forms, etc. See blockchain.

Another difference, as stated by Forrester, is ZPD (new acronym alert) is not owned by the brands who collect it, but owned by the consumer… We should not sell this data or use it for things beyond the intent behind the data exchange. This may be aimed at some very large corporations (like one who recently branded the portfolio something that rhymes with “feta") who have misused consumer data.

In closing, ZPD encourages us all to expand transparency, improve value propositions and experiences, and gives us a new acronym to play with.