Data Privacy

Now, advertisers have more flexible access to the MTA’s four million daily riders while they’re inside the stations, waiting for their trains.

Businesses will always need to find a compromise between privacy and utility, but it’s more than possible to strike a healthy balance, says Graham Mudd, president and chief product officer at privacy startup Anonym.

Cookie loss is happening, even if it doesn’t feel imminent, and there’s no point in procrastinating, according to Sisi Zhang, chief data and analytics officer at Publicis-owned Razorfish.

In today’s newsletter: Meta will shutter news benchmarking service CrowdTangle; Reddit rolls out a new ad format to monetize its user activity; and the ANA readies a report analyzing the programmatic supply chain.

If you weren’t able to tune in to the FTC’s PrivacyCon event last week – it was a seven-hour affair, after all – then worry not. We gotchoo.

There’s a lot more good than bad in Google’s Privacy Sandbox. Here’s why some of the current criticisms around the cookie alternative don’t hold water.

Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter had some free advice for anyone tuning in to the Federal Trade Commission’s virtual PrivacyCon event on Wednesday: “Pay close attention to Kochava.”

In a world without cookies, ads aren’t viewable and yield goes down. But it’s still early days. Mediavine SVP Amanda Martin shares early results from its Privacy Sandbox tests.

The next wave of privacy regulation revolves around data brokers. And while the term “data broker” may have a negative connotation, its legal definition is fairly straightforward.

In today’s newsletter: Can Etsy and Wayfair compete against Temu?; audience data dominates the TV upfronts; the FTC sues to block the Kroger/Albertsons deal.

“Compliance doesn’t have to be a chore, and legal can be a strategic partner,” says Jamie Lieberman, chief legal officer at ad management and monetization platform Mediavine.

Reddit generates “substantially” all of its revenue through advertising, and its S-1 filing reveals its strategy for licensing data and becoming “the leader in contextual advertising.”

In today’s newsletter: Criteo’s investors clamor for a sale; the FTC fines VPN provider Avast for deceptive data practices; air quality-focused site HouseFresh laments the state of online search.

In today’s newsletter: The simmering tension between Apple and Meta keeps growing; Nielsen panels have staying power; Temu’s Super Bowl play probably won’t pay off.

After Temu’s 5+ Super Bowl ads and billions in ad spending, will people shop like a billionaire? We discuss the strange profligacy of the discount shopping app.

The partnership announced on Thursday between MediaMath’s new owner, Infillion, and programmatic media buying platform AdLib isn’t a typical integration. It’s what you might call a reintegration.

Do people hate ads? No, according to Vegard Johnsen, eyeo’s chief product officer. What they don’t like, he says, is not being treated with respect.

Some marketers failed to heed the warning signs that their relationship with third-party cookies was coming to an end. But the time to move on is now. Fortunately, there are plenty of other addressability solutions in the sea.

The question isn’t whether Google will fall, but whether its time is near. And, if so, what will finally bring it down?

We caught up with IAB Tech Lab CEO Tony Katsur in the wake of a new bombshell report that claims the Chrome Privacy Sandbox is not fit for purpose.

The anonymous alphanumeric string made and lost fortunes in its short but eventful life. It was best-known for something it wasn’t actually designed to do: targeting ads.

In today’s newsletter: Buyers are relatively blasé about made-for-advertising sites; Meta is riding high, having fully adapted to ATT, while Google’s search dominance is under threat; and Publicis Groupe reports strong growth.

The gap analysis of the Privacy Sandbox is out – and the gap is large. Plus, a case for why hype about first-party data hasn’t been matched in reality.

“Standard advertising services” shouldn’t include recording intimate patient-doctor conversations to help drug companies guide doctors on how to push opioids.

In today’s newsletter: The FTC is suing Kochava (again); marketers are complacent about third-party cookie deprecation; and Publicis Health pays the piper for its role in the opioid epidemic.

Meta’s shares surged by nearly 15% after reporting Q4 earnings on Thursday. It was the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, following a dismal 2022.

After going through denial and anger over the death of third-party cookies, the ad tech industry enters the bargaining stage. Plus, top takeaways from the FTC’s first-ever AI tech summit.

The industry is “at a critical inflection point in our digital evolution,” David Cohen told attendees at the 1,200-person-strong Annual Leadership Meeting in Florida on Monday.

How can we establish guardrails for the use of generative AI while supporting creative exploration? As banal as it sounds, the answer is to create a comprehensive gen AI policy.  

Last week, FTC Chair Lina Khan announced a probe into Big Tech’s relationship with generative AI companies at an FTC forum to address competition concerns related to AI technology – its first AI-focused tech summit.