Chrome Users Get More Control Over Data; Publicis Explains Epsilon Purchase

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Chrome On The Tightrope

Google’s Chrome browser will introduce a dashboard tool allowing users granular control over cookies and data collection, The Wall Street Journal reports. The new feature could roll out as soon as this week. Reports of Chrome cookie updates have swirled recently, but this change is an incremental step compared to Firefox or Safari, which introduced default tracker-blocking for their browsers. Chrome has tightened its data policies before without hampering programmatic media, like the ad-blocking tech it introduced last year. This update would only make cookie-blocking an option within the Chrome user controls. That’s nothing like Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention, on-device machine learning software designed to sniff out and block web trackers. Still, the change is important because programmatic businesses disproportionately rely on Chrome, where advertising cookies can still mostly be used. Fifty percent of Criteo’s business comes from Chrome, CEO JB Rudelle told investors last week. He said Criteo is working “hand-in-hand” with Google on the update, and that it won’t harm the ad tech ecosystem. More.

Math Men

Publicis Groupe chairman and former CEO Maurice Lévy defended the company’s $4.4 billion purchase of Epsilon last month, after the high price tag garnered scrutiny from investors. Agencies will have to make big bets as the business shifts away from expensive TV commercials and toward the internet, Lévy tells the Financial Times, and the “math men” replace the Mad Men. While Lévy, retired, generally stays out of day- to- day business decisions, he was part of the Epsilon acquisition from day one. “If an advertising agency wants to have a future, data is absolutely indispensable,” he says. More.

Amazon’s TV Advantage

Business Insider published Amazon’s deck for programmatic video advertising, and the slides give some clues to the company’s plan for TV and digital video. In one slide that appears to be a direct dig at YouTube, Amazon cites its Fire TV video inventory as “full-screen,” “non-skippable” and “brand-safe, licensed TV and movie content.” In another, Amazon hints at its impressive measurement capabilities including the ability to attribute Amazon search traffic and a “new to brand” metric that can track the percentage of sales that are driven by new customers. More.

But Wait, There’s More!