On Saturday, September 13, Sentinel Insights joined peers from across the analytics and privacy community at MeasureCamp Chicago 2025. The unconference format brought together practitioners, technologists, and compliance leaders for a full day of discussions shaped directly by attendees.
Unlike traditional conferences, the session board was built live that morning. Seven rounds of 25-minute sessions followed, covering topics from advanced tagging strategies to the ethics of data collection. Privacy considerations surfaced across tracks and time slots, reinforcing that consent governance is now central to analytics conversations.
Key Themes from the Day
1 | Consent Management as an Ethical Imperative
Consent is no longer seen as a technical hurdle. It is an ethical standard. Many organizations still believe collecting preferences in a cookie banner is sufficient, but meaningful consent requires verifiable enforcement. In Scotty Hagen’s morning session, one participant summed it up clearly: organizations must collect data with clear, unambiguous consent because “it’s the right thing to do.”
This shift reflects a broader trend. Honoring consent has become a marker of trust. Companies that treat consent only as a compliance checkbox risk regulatory action and reputational damage that is harder to repair.
2 | Data Quality and Governance in Practice
Multiple sessions examined the realities of keeping analytics trustworthy. Attendees shared challenges with detecting bots, filtering spam traffic, debugging tag misfires, and validating GA4 migrations. The shared concern was clear. Poor data quality undermines decision-making and compliance.
When inaccurate or unauthorized data is collected, exposure compounds. Governance, continuous monitoring, and regular audits emerged as essential practices to ensure analytics remain both reliable and defensible.
3 | Peer-Led Learning and “Nerds of a Feather” Conversations
Some of the most valuable exchanges took place during unstructured networking time and in the informal “Nerds of a Feather” lunch groups. Attendees compared approaches to GA4 migration, tag auditing, and governance frameworks, surfacing blind spots and practical fixes.
These candid, peer-driven conversations underscored a growing need for ongoing education and collaboration as more than 20 U.S. states adopt new privacy laws with varying requirements.
Why These Conversations Matter
The themes from MeasureCamp mirror the core risks Sentinel Insights helps enterprises address every day:
- Consent validation must extend beyond banners to verifiable enforcement at the tag level.
- Identity stitching and CDP architectures require governance to prevent unlawful data exposure.
- Data integrity is more than just clean metrics. Organizations with integrity will work to ensure consent enforcement works as intended.
With state attorneys general and class action firms actively pursuing consent violations, these risks are not theoretical. They are real compliance exposures that can cost companies millions.
Related reading: Sentinel Insights Blog
Looking Ahead: MeasureCamp DC
The conversation continues at MeasureCamp DC on October 4, 2025, at the District Architecture Center. This is the first MeasureCamp hosted in Washington, D.C., and Sentinel Insights is proud to be a sponsor. The unconference format will again ensure data privacy issues, from evolving state laws to third-party tag behavior, receive the attention they deserve.
We will also be attending DIMSUMX on Friday night before the event. If you’ve never attended a DIMSUMX, you’ve been missing out. Hope to see you there!
More information and registration: MeasureCamp DC
Bottom line: MeasureCamp Chicago reinforced a principle at the center of our work. Consent is not a box to check. It is a responsibility to uphold, a defense to protect, and a source of trust to preserve.
