How privacy and consent work with zero-party data

Genuin collects zero-party data only from explicit user actions and OS-level consent, activates it by context instead of identity, and keeps it brand-owned and never sold.

Genuin follows privacy by design: the safeguards are built into the system, not added afterward. From SDK architecture to ad activation, four principles hold across the whole zero-party data lifecycle:

People decide what to share.
You control how the data is used.
Advertisers work from context, not identity.
Genuin acts as a processor, not a data owner.

These principles keep you compliant and trusted as you scale across regions and regulations. For what zero-party data is, see Zero-party data for brands. For where privacy rules sit among Genuin's products, see Control: what it does and where to start.

How Genuin collects zero-party data

Explicit user actions only

Zero-party data comes only from what people choose to do:

Selecting interests or topics
Joining communities or groups
Posting, sparking (liking), sharing, or searching content
Completing profile details voluntarily

There's no background surveillance and no cross-site tracking.

For sensitive access, Genuin requires explicit consent at the operating system level:

Camera
Microphone
Photo gallery
Location data
Contacts
Speech recognition

If a person denies a permission, Genuin doesn't collect that data, with no fallbacks and no workarounds. For how the SDK requests each permission, see Request camera, microphone, and photo library permissions.

Clear permission boundaries

People always know:

Why the data is requested
What experience it enables
Where it's used: community, feed, content, or ads

This transparency prevents consent fatigue and builds confidence.

What Genuin doesn't do

Genuin doesn't rely on:

Third-party cookies
Fingerprinting
Probabilistic identity graphs
Cross-platform user stitching

People aren't followed across the open web, and Genuin builds no shadow profiles.

Zero-party data collected in your ecosystem is never sold, never pooled across brands, and never shared with advertisers at the user level. Your data stays brand-owned. For how Genuin keeps viewing history and identity apart, see Privacy and VPPA: the two-channel data flow.

Contextual activation instead of personal targeting

Genuin doesn't target people. Advertisers align with where content appears, not who the user is:

Communities
Groups
Content categories
Engagement environments

When ads run through ad exchanges, Genuin passes IAB-defined contextual macros, such as:

Content category
Keywords
Language
Media rating
Content type and length
Producer or community context

These signals describe the environment, not the individual, so ads stay relevant and people stay private. For every macro and its values, see how zero-party data powers your social experience and media revenue.

Feed personalization without profiling

Genuin personalizes feeds from non-intrusive signals:

Recency of content
Declared user interests
Engagement patterns
Collective popularity signals

Genuin doesn't predict behavior across unrelated contexts or score individuals opaquely. For how contextual feeds rank videos, see How contextual feeds choose videos.

Brand control and human oversight

You keep full control over:

What data is collected
Where it's used
How long it's retained
Which placements activate monetization

That lines up with your internal data governance, legal review, and regional compliance needs.

AI supports moderation, ranking, and relevance, but people stay in control of:

Editorial approvals
Community governance
Brand safety rules
Placement configurations

AI operates within the guardrails you define. Learn more about moderation and brand safety for publishers and Supervised Intelligence Autonomy and Approvals.

Compliance principles

Genuin's zero-party data framework follows these principles:

Consent-first data collection
Purpose limitation
Data minimization
User transparency
Brand ownership of data

Because people share data voluntarily and Genuin activates it by context, you reduce your regulatory and reputational risk. For account isolation, encryption, and regional storage, see Security, data residency, and compliance.