Knowledge Base

What is Narrative ID?

Narrative enables privacy-safe collaboration between companies by providing a pseudonymous identifier called the Narrative ID. To learn more about Narrative ID, read the knowledge base article What is Narrative ID?

How Narrative IDs Enable Secure Data Collaboration

Narrative IDs provide a unique, privacy-focused way for partners to collaborate without exposing sensitive personal identifiers directly. These workflows demonstrate how Narrative IDs, access rules, and connectors enable partners to engage in secure, privacy-safe data interactions across various environments and use cases. With Narrative IDs, companies gain flexibility, allowing them to handle data collaboration in a controlled way that meets compliance standards and protects user privacy.

The following examples showcase three common workflows where Narrative IDs streamline secure, privacy-first data handling. Each workflow leverages the Narrative platform's key features, such as access rules, connectors, and the Narrative ID encoding system, to facilitate privacy-centric collaboration.

Workflow 1: Direct Collaboration Using Narrative IDs

Description: Partner A and Partner B share data by using Narrative IDs instead of clear text identifiers. This workflow secures data in a shared environment, leveraging access rules to encode and protect personal data.

Key Benefit: Secure, direct collaboration between partners, with real-time encoding of Narrative IDs from clear text identifiers, ideal for clean room environments.

Steps:

1. Query Data: Partner A queries Partner B’s data through an access rule that encodes clear text identifiers to Narrative IDs.
2. Pseudonymized Response: Partner B’s access rule enforces encoding, ensuring all PII is replaced with Narrative IDs.
3. Secure Collaboration: Partner A receives the encoded data, enabling secure collaboration without handling raw personal data.

Workflow 2: Using Narrative IDs with a Connector for Downstream Delivery

Description: Partner A sends Narrative IDs through a Narrative Connector, which decodes only the necessary identifiers for a downstream system such as a DSP or social platform.

Key Benefit: This enables integration with downstream platforms that require clear text identifiers for activation, with privacy maintained through selective decoding.

Steps:

1. Send Narrative IDs: Partner A sends Narrative IDs to the Narrative Connector.
2. Targeted Decoding and Delivery: The Connector decodes only the necessary identifiers for the specific destination and securely delivers them to the platform for activation.

Workflow 3: Creating a Narrative ID Match Table for Secure Collaboration Outside of the Narrative Environment

Description: Partner A generates a match table linking Narrative IDs to clear text identifiers, enabling collaboration with Partner B in an external environment. The match table allows Partner A and Partner B to collaborate around data using other channels, while communicating using only Narrative ID and without exposing clear text identifiers.

Key Benefit: Enables collaboration outside of Narrative’s ecosystem, maintaining data privacy while expanding usability for applications like DSP audience matching.

What is a Match Table?

A match table is a structured table that links Narrative IDs to clear text identifiers (e.g., email addresses, hashed email addresses, phone numbers, hashed phone numbers, device IDs, etc.)

As an example, a match table mapping Narrative ID to clear text email might look like this:

Use Cases:

1. Activation Platform Integration (e.g., DSP):
   The match table allows an activation platform, such as a DSP, to identify users based on the Narrative ID and email mapping. When the DSP serves an ad to a user matched to the clear text identifier (email), it appends the Narrative ID to impression logs and measurement feeds. This enables partners to track ad exposure and engagement using pseudonymous Narrative IDs without revealing raw emails in reporting.
2. Data Collaboration in a Clean Room:
   The match table is delivered to a clean room environment, which only operates with Narrative IDs to preserve user privacy. The clean room can use the Narrative ID to perform secure audience matching, join datasets, or conduct analysis. When the collaboration is complete, the clean room returns results with Narrative IDs only, ensuring privacy-safe data handling throughout the process.

Steps:

1. Send IDs to Connector: Partner A sends Narrative IDs to the Narrative Connector.
2. Generate and Transmit Match Table: The Connector decodes the Narrative IDs, and then sends the clear text identifiers alongside the Narrative IDs to Partner B. This creates a match table that Partner B can use in its environment.
3. Collaborate Securely: Partner A and Partner B continue collaborating using only Narrative ID, which each Partner B can match using the previously delivered match table.

Conclusion

These workflows highlight how Narrative IDs facilitate secure and privacy-compliant data collaboration, whether within Narrative’s environment or extended to downstream and external systems. By encoding personal identifiers and utilizing access rules and connectors, Narrative IDs protect data at each stage, providing partners with versatile, privacy-first solutions for data collaboration.

This flexibility to collaborate securely with Narrative IDs enables organizations to expand their data ecosystem confidently, ensuring compliance and enhancing data utility.