Facebook To Verify CRM Data; Coupon App Honey To Raise Huge Round

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.

Proof Of Permission

Facebook is launching tools to police marketers’ use of CRM data on its platform. One tool requires marketers to certify all email addresses used for targeting on Facebook were rightfully obtained, and the other will prevent marketers from sharing Custom Audiences across business accounts. “For any Custom Audiences data imported into Facebook, Advertisers will be required to represent and warrant that proper user content has been obtained,” according to a Facebook client note obtained by TechCrunch. While Facebook had a similar disclosure around consent for email usage on Custom Audiences in the past, they weren’t strongly enforced, with Facebook banking more on the threat of expulsion. But it’s unclear how Facebook will guarantee the new policy beyond requiring written confirmation. More.

The Honey Trap

The coupon app Honey, which scrapes the web for discounts on purchases users are considering, is in talks for a potential monster investment of around $100 million. Honey is in an “unsexy but lucrative” niche of email, browser and app-based coupon and consumer cash-back services. There’s a larger opportunity around data and recommendations, which founder Ryan Hudson hints at. “If people think of us as a coupon extension a year or two from now, we will have failed at execution,” Hudson tells Recode. More.

Refined Tastes

Media companies face dwindling profits and new consumer attitudes, so it’s no surprise that the “line between church and state in journalism has grown progressively thinner,” Digiday reports. Refinery29 is leading the race to build direct advertiser-editorial connections. The women-focused publisher sold advertisers the chance to set up shop in its offices and has started using editorial content and accounts for influencer campaigns. Traditional and digital-native publishers, including Condé Nast and Mental Floss, have also started using editorial teams to build sponsored content. More.

Winter Of Our DisConsent

The Department of Justice is investigating Live Nation for possible anti-competitive practices using its music performance business to leverage its subsidiary Ticketmaster, reports The New York Times. AEG, Live Nation’s chief competitor, alleges venues in some markets would lose shows if they didn’t contract with Ticketmaster. When the government approved the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, it did so under a consent decree to safeguard competitors in the market. More. Consent decrees have helped pass blockbuster mergers, like Comcast’s agreement not to offer NBC content at different rates to rival telcos and Google buying travel algorithm company ITA Software under agreement to license it to other travel search engines. But the DOJ is holding a new line against consent decrees, which is why AT&T’s deal for Time Warner didn’t get the same offer as Comcast. [AdExchanger has more on why that matters to media.]

But Wait, There’s More!