I am talking about the increased use of QR codes in Digital Advertising, especially on CTV (Connected TV) and DOOH (Digital Out of Home) screens and in Video ads on our PCs. It makes it easy for the user to respond to the advertising when they are actually looking at the screen.

Now we are all for giving users the optimal mechanisms to respond to great ads. And QR codes provide a great way to do just that by scanning the QR code with your mobile device.

However most consumers when they are scanning a QR code do not realize there could be up to a couple of hops before their mobile device reaches the destination. And therein lies the problem - those hops very often include tracking code that the consumer wasn’t given the opportunity to consent to.

As an industry, do we ever learn from our errors? The reason we are facing an imminent cookie apocalypse is because the browsers capitulated - they realized that either they take proactive steps to prevent all the non consented tracking that is taking place in Digital Advertising or it will be done for them by Government Regulators.

There is only one safe way to enable QR codes and allow consumers to consent. When a user scans the QR code no tracking is applied; instead, when creating the QR code we include a parameter on the URL that identifies that the link came from a QR code scan.
EG: https://mysite.com/myproduct.html?qr=[renderingID] .
When the page loads, the publisher would first increment their count of visitors that came from QR codes. Tracking of individuals wouldn’t be enabled until a user has consented using the publisher’s consent mechanism. This ensures that permission to track has been given by the user on the device being used to visit the site. Taking a, user first, approach is the only safe way to prevent future government legislation impacting the way we track. And of course it’s the only way to avoid the inevitable fines.

Aderize was founded on the premise of being a different kind of company. The kind of company that is focused on making the internet a better experience for consumers while maximizing results for advertisers. We do not believe those two goals are contradictory, quite the contrary. We also have no skin in the QR game, but we feel it important to speak up when we see challenges that can disrupt consumer harmony.

Would love to hear your feedback, are we missing something here or is our call to action on QR codes an appropriate measure?