Data Clean Room
Zeotap Collaborate is built on Google BigQuery’s Analytics Hub Data Clean Room infrastructure. This is what makes privacy-safe collaboration possible. When a partnership is created, Zeotap provisions a secure, isolated environment inside BigQuery. Overlap analysis runs inside this environment — neither organisation’s raw data leaves their own environment. The Contributor’s data is queried in place; the Subscriber’s data is brought in for matching; the result that comes out is an aggregated count, not a list of individuals. This architecture means:- The Subscriber never receives the Contributor’s raw records.
- The Contributor never sees what is in the Subscriber’s dataset.
- Both sides can trust that the analysis reflects true overlap without either party exposing their customer data.
Join Keys
A Join Key is the identity attribute used to match records between the Contributor’s dataset and the Subscriber’s dataset. It must be an ID-type attribute — a field that uniquely identifies a person, such as a hashed email address or hashed phone number. How matching works The clean room compares the join key values from both sides. A match occurs when the same identifier value appears in both datasets. For example, if both organisations hold Email MD5 values, a user with Email MD5a3f… on the Contributor side is matched to the same a3f… value on the Subscriber side.
Multiple join keys
A partnership can have more than one join key — for example, both Email MD5 and Phone MD5. Each join key is matched independently. This generally increases the size of the overlap, because users who are present in only one identifier type can still be matched.
Unmapped join keys
If the Subscriber has not mapped one of the Contributor’s join keys (because they do not hold that identifier type), that join key is simply excluded from the analysis. The partnership still works; the overlap is calculated using only the keys that were successfully mapped.
Common join key types
Email MD5, Email SHA256, Phone MD5, Phone SHA256, Zeotap ID, and other platform-specific IDs are typical join key types. The key requirement is that both organisations hold the same type and have applied the same hashing algorithm.
Insight Dimensions
An Insight Dimension is an attribute the Contributor chooses to share for analysis purposes — not for matching. It allows the Subscriber to break down the overlap count by characteristics of the Contributor’s audience. What the Subscriber sees When a Subscriber selects an insight dimension in analysis, they see the matched overlap count split by each value of that attribute. For example, if the Contributor shares “Gender” as an insight dimension, the Subscriber sees:| Gender | Overlap |
|---|---|
| Male | 11,678 |
| Female | 11,800 |
Aggregate Threshold
The Aggregate Threshold is a minimum group size set by the Contributor. Any cohort in the analysis results that contains fewer users than this threshold is hidden entirely from the Subscriber — not shown as a small number, but suppressed completely. Default The default threshold is 1,000. Groups smaller than 1,000 are not shown in results by default. Why suppression exists If a Subscriber could see very small cohort sizes — for example, “3 matched users are Female aged 25–34 in Munich” — it would be possible in some cases to infer the identity of individuals. Suppressing small cohorts prevents this. Effect on Save as Audience The threshold also governs whether a Subscriber can save a cohort as an audience. Any overlap bucket not shown due to the threshold cannot be saved as an audience.Activation Settings
Activation Settings are configured by the Contributor and control what the Subscriber can do with analysis results beyond viewing them. Allow Activation toggle When this is off, the Subscriber can run analysis and view all result panels, but the Save as Audience button is disabled throughout. No audiences can be created from this partnership. When this is on, the Subscriber can save audiences from the Overlap, Insight Dimension, and Suppression sections. Activation Channels When activation is enabled, the Contributor selects which downstream channels the Subscriber may push audiences to. Only destinations from these channels appear in the Subscriber’s activation workflow. If the Contributor has not permitted a particular channel, the Subscriber cannot activate it — even if that channel is connected in their own Zeotap org.A channel selected by the publisher also needs to be enabled for the subscriber org to facilitate activation.
Partnership Lifecycle
A Collaborate partnership moves through the following statuses:| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending | The partnership has been created. An invitation email has been sent to the Subscriber’s CDP admins. Waiting for the Subscriber to accept. The Contributor can begin their configuration at this stage. |
| In Setup | The Subscriber has accepted the invitation. Both sides are completing their configuration. The Subscriber can map join keys once the Contributor has submitted their configuration. |
| Active | Both sides have submitted their configuration. Analysis can be run. |
| Archived | The partnership has been closed. It is no longer available for analysis. Both organisations receive an email when a partnership is archived. This is a terminal status. |
Composable Sources vs Ingested Attributes
These are the two ways data can be brought into Zeotap, and they behave differently in the context of Collaborate. Composable Sources (warehouse-native) A composable source connects to data that lives in the client’s own BigQuery environment. Zeotap creates a view over the data and queries it in place — no raw data is copied into Zeotap’s systems. Collaboration only works if the subscriber’s org is a composable org. This is to enable audience creation and activation on the publisher’s attributes without copying the publisher’s data into the subscriber’s project. Ingested Attributes Ingested attributes are data the client has uploaded into Zeotap’s managed environment through standard data ingestion pipelines. The data is stored and processed within Zeotap’s infrastructure. Why they cannot be mixed Each partnership must use one source type exclusively. The underlying infrastructure that powers the clean room analysis handles composable and ingested data through different query paths, and these paths cannot be combined within a single analysis context.Suppression Analysis
Suppression is an analysis view that shows the portion of the Subscriber’s dataset that was not matched by the Contributor. It is the inverse of the overlap. This is valuable for:- Exclusion targeting — identifying customers your partner has not yet reached, for campaigns aimed at filling that gap.
- Incrementality measurement — understanding what share of your audience is unique versus shared with your partner.
- Frequency management — suppressing already-reached audiences from campaigns to avoid over-exposure.
Activity Log
The Activity Log is a chronological, tamper-evident record of significant events on a partnership. It is visible to both the Contributor and the Subscriber — both sides see the same log, with no separate view per role. Each entry shows the event label, a human-readable description, the actor’s organisation, and a timestamp. The following events are displayed in the UI.Invite Sent
Invite Sent
When it fires: Immediately when the Contributor creates the partnership.What it shows: “[Contributor org] sent invite to [Subscriber org]”What it means: The partnership has been created and an invitation email has been dispatched to the CDP admins of the Subscriber’s organisation. The Contributor can begin their configuration at this point.
Invite Accepted
Invite Accepted
When it fires: When a Subscriber CDP admin accepts the invitation.What it shows: “[Subscriber org] accepted the invite”What it means: The Subscriber has acknowledged the partnership. The status moves from Pending to In Setup. The Subscriber can now see the configuration screen and begin mapping their join keys, but only after the Contributor has completed their configuration.
Invite Declined
Invite Declined
When it fires: When a Subscriber CDP admin declines the invitation.What it shows: “[Subscriber org] declined the invite”What it means: The Subscriber has rejected the partnership. The partnership does not progress. The Contributor would need to create a new partnership to try again.
Configuration Saved (Publisher)
Configuration Saved (Publisher)
When it fires: When the Contributor submits their attribute selection and privacy settings (Steps 1 and 2 of the configuration wizard).What it shows: “[Contributor org] submitted their configuration”What it means: The Contributor has defined which attributes are shared, which are join keys, which are insight dimensions, the aggregate threshold, and the activation settings. This unlocks the Subscriber’s configuration step — the Subscriber can now map their join keys.
Configuration Saved (Subscriber)
Configuration Saved (Subscriber)
When it fires: When the Subscriber submits their join key mapping.What it shows: “[Subscriber org] mapped X join keys successfully”What it means: The Subscriber has mapped their identity attributes to the Contributor’s join keys. The number of successfully mapped keys is shown in the description. If both sides have now submitted, the partnership status moves to Active and analysis can begin.
Analysis Run
Analysis Run
When it fires: When an analysis pipeline run completes successfully.What it shows: “Overlap analysis completed with X matched records”What it means: The Subscriber triggered an overlap analysis and it has finished. The overlap count in the description is the total number of matched records across all mapped join keys. The Subscriber can view the full results in the Analysis tab.
Audience Saved
Audience Saved
When it fires: When the Subscriber saves an audience from analysis results.What it shows: “Audience saved from [overlap / insight dimension / suppression] segments”What it means: The Subscriber has created a new audience from their analysis results. The description indicates which part of the results it was saved from — the main overlap, an insight dimension breakdown, or the suppression view. The audience is now available in Segment → Audiences for activation.
Partnership Terminated
Partnership Terminated
When it fires: When either the Contributor or the Subscriber terminates the partnership.What it shows: “[Org name] terminated the partnership”What it means: The partnership has been archived. No further analysis can be run. Both organisations receive an email notification. Any audiences already saved from previous analyses are unaffected.