The way Advocate collects data is unique because Advocate doesn't have a partner marketplace like Creator and Performance, and impact.com does not have a direct relationship with the end users registered in your Advocate program. Cash payments are an exception because users provide their banking and tax information to impact.com to facilitate payment of their rewards.

Direct data comes straight from the source, typically entered by the end user or directly provided.
It is possible to run a program without any direct user data if you use a unique ID for your users. Running a program with only a unique ID means that you won’t be able to use the following Advocate features:
You can include the following user data points when sending user data to Advocate.
User ID (required)
We recommend using a user’s email address, stored as a
SHA1
hash.
Account ID (required)
We recommend using a user’s email address, stored as a
SHA1
hash.
First name (optional)
Last name (optional)
Email address (required if you want to send emails to your users, otherwise optional)
User’s locale (optional)
User’s country (optional)
dateUsTaxFormSubmitted (optional)
Cookies (optional)
Advocate program cookie:
Base64URL
encoded object containing the share link used, cookie expiry, and unique referral code of the referrer.
Segments (optional)
Custom fields (optional)
Free-form fields that can be used to store additional data about the user, e.g., mailing address, subscription tier, phone number, etc.
Date User Created (in Advocate) (optional)
Date User Last Updated (in Advocate) (optional)
Cash rewards: If you’re using the cash payout system, Advocate will also capture and store the user’s provided banking and tax details directly to impact.com as part of the payout process. Users will also need to accept the terms and conditions associated with the payout. If you don’t use the cash payments system, e.g., rewarding a gift card or discount code instead, then the end user does not have a relationship with impact.com.
Tango Card reward integration: If you’re using our Tango Card integration to reward gift cards, the user’s first name, last name, and email address are passed to Tango Card to facilitate fulfillment of the reward.
An end-user doesn't directly enter indirect data; instead, it's gathered from other sources to give us deeper insights.
The following data points are tracked and stored for the user but are not Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
User data can be used in the following ways:
User Identification: User and account IDs are used to identify the user.
Tailored content: You can provide us with a user’s first name, last name, and email to facilitate our platform being able to send end users emails about their referrals and provide tailored content in the widget and emails (e.g., “Your friend Bob has just completed a purchase, your reward is coming!”)
Fraud detection: The user’s name, email address, and IP address are used by our fraud management tools to detect potentially fraudulent referrals.
Internationalization: The user’s country and locale are used for internationalization.
Payments and tax registration: The end user will provide their banking and tax information to:
Receive payments for their rewards.
Indicate when a US W-9 tax form is submitted.