Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
Shifting Sands
The CMA, England’s antitrust regulator, published its quarterly update on the Chrome Privacy Sandbox.
Many “potential concerns” remain unaddressed. The report could be characterized as ominous for the Privacy Sandbox – especially considering Google kicked the can on depreciation yet again.
However, the issues appear to be mostly manageable. For instance, Google controls the Topics API taxonomy, which could be manipulated to its benefit. Whether Google adds an independent operator or governance structure for the taxonomy, it can clear that hurdle.
Another concern, though, says the Topics API would “disadvantage small ad techs who have a more limited ‘reach’ and access to targeting information compared to large ad techs.”
That’s the one Google needs to weather – and it has. The CMA says “unequal access to data is not a new problem and that, compared to the status quo, small players are unlikely to be disadvantaged as a result of the introduction of the Topics API.”
The Privacy Sandbox’s true sticking point is that Google benefits from cookie deprecation. The same rules apply to everyone, but only Google Ads has Google data. As long as the CMA accepts that Google Ads could gain a relative advantage without an antitrust violation, Google can address other concerns.
Location, Location, Location
Why should the FTC have all the fun?
On Monday, the FCC fined four mobile carriers for selling customer location data to third-party brokers, who themselves resold it to aggregators, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Verizon ($46.9 million), AT&T ($57.3 million), T-Mobile ($80.1 million) and Sprint ($12.2 million) are the offending parties.
The FCC first proposed the fines in 2020 following an investigation. With the fines levied today, the commission alleges that the carriers continued selling customer location data without adequate protections that the data wouldn’t be resold and used by third parties without consent – and despite the FCC informing the companies they were being investigated for these offenses.
Jessica Rosenworcel, FCC chairwoman and the ranking Democrat, called out in her statement that this practice means data might “wind up in the hands of bail-bond companies, bounty hunters, and other shady actors.”
The fine is part of an overall effort by Democrats to establish a precedent. They are focused on preventing the distribution of data that might be used to identify people who have had or are considering abortions in states where abortions are now illegal.
News You Can Use
Publishers are in a sprint to sign data licensing deals with AI companies.
Publishers are attractive partners – the data can be extremely valuable, especially if the AI tech company can secure exclusive rights – and the publishers themselves are, frankly, desperate.
The Financial Times struck a deal with OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, to license its content and data back to the software company. OpenAI will help develop generative content products for FT, such as a generative search function for the site or an embedded assistant for ChatGPT users.
Aside from the data licensing revenue, ChatGPT prompts based on FT content will now credit the publisher and link to the story.
These are things the AI operators should just do. The New York Times is suing OpenAI for plagiarism, having caught ChatGPT copying and pasting its reporting almost word for word without attribution. But what OpenAI is giving FT portends an important carrot (or is it a stick?) for getting publishers to cooperate with AI companies.
Axel Springer, meanwhile, expanded a major partnership with Microsoft, including new generative AI experiences, an ad tech expansion and Axel switching from SAP’s cloud infrastructure to Microsoft Azure.
But Wait, There’s More!
Infillion relaunches MediaMath. [Digiday]
Meta and reasonable doubt. [Stratechery]
The EU opens a probe into Meta over its alleged mishandling of political news and disinformation. [Financial Times]
Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery will give advertisers a sneak peek at their joint streaming venture during upfronts. [Variety]
Reddit COO Jen Wong warns that the company will consider legal action over commercialized use of its copyrighted data by generative AI. [The Sunday Times]
You’re Hired!
VideoAmp hires Amy Madden as SVP of revenue and growth, Jeff Schmidt as SVP of advertisers and Conor Burgess as VP of agency partnerships. [release]
