Data Privacy

A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…

Last week, I tuned into the entire FTC forum on “surveillance capitalism” and data security – all five-plus hours of it (you’re welcome?) – and this is my main takeaway: The online advertising industry needs to find a new way to talk about itself.

A federal privacy law is perhaps the only way the digital media industry can stave off Big Tech companies, which are aggressively trying to define privacy on their own terms, writes Jason Bier, general counsel and chief privacy officer at Adstra.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Engine Room The Justice Department held a tutorial session with a judge and Google’s counsel to prepare for an antitrust trial beginning next year, Bloomberg reports.  The tutorial is a reminder how difficult it can be to manage a Big Tech suit. […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Services Company What do Apple’s prices indicate about its Services revenue plans?  A lot, actually.  Apple’s MO has been to increase customer lifetime value by increasing devices and prices. Apple made a brief run at the lower market with the 5C, a phone […]

Sephora is the first company to be fined under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to the tune of $1.2 million. Cory Munchbach, president and COO of BlueConic, weighs in on what this first instance of CCPA enforcement means for other brands and the future of privacy.

Apple made an announcement that might have digital advertising ramifications sooner than news about the company’s DSP. Apple’s forthcoming “Lockdown Mode” can protect consumers from illicit activity and unwanted tracking. But it’s designed for a specific group of individuals vulnerable to attacks – plus, it can impact functionality in a way most users won’t tolerate.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Unbeatable You The podcasting business is colliding with vlogging, as popular YouTube accounts and podcast hosts branch out into a hybrid video podcast format. The big winner, of course, is YouTube.  One recent report found that YouTube is actually the biggest podcasting […]

When the GDPR was passed in 2016, it was a wake-up call for anyone that handled consumer data. Now, four years since its implementation, GDPR’s efficacy remains unclear, writes Jessica Jacobs, global director of partnerships and growth at Incubeta.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Blackest Box The name “Meta Advantage+” might confuse you into thinking Facebook has a streaming service. But the company is just following in Google’s footsteps. Google launched Performance Max, a black box within a walled garden, late last year to replace Google Smart […]

There’s a storm brewing and wildfires are raging. We’re not talking about hurricane season or climate change, though, but rather the fallout for ad tech from the macroeconomic downturn and privacy lawsuits, including the FTC’s recent complaint against Kochava which challenges the programmatic data-selling model writ large.

The European Parliament adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in July. Although they were passed as one legislative package, they function as two distinct laws. But there is one common thread: Holding Big Tech providers more accountable for what happens on their platforms.

The FTC sued Kochava on Monday for allegedly selling visitation data tied to abortion clinics, mental health facilities, places of worship, domestic abuse shelters and other sensitive locations.

While Chrome dallies on the third-party cookie question, Firefox keeps releasing new anti-tracking features. Marshall Erwin, Mozilla’s chief security officer, dishes on everything from cracking down on fingerprinting to its unlikely collaboration with Meta on privacy-preserving attribution technology.

Marketers will soon be unable to rely on third-party data to understand customers at scale, and the jury is still out on how first-party data can power measurement. In an ID-free world, there are three ways partnerships can help marketers achieve holistic measurement to drive business outcomes and ROI: enhanced data, expedited insights and enablement of scale, writes Susan Tillou, SVP, global head of partnerships at Analytic Partners.

TFW when you brag about the size of your graph on stage at an industry event, then it’s used as evidence against you. Oracle was hit with a class-action lawsuit on Friday accusing the company of “a deliberate and purposeful surveillance of the general population via their digital and online existence.”

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Did The Oracle Get It Wrong? Is it time to call it on Oracle Advertising?  The group had painful layoffs this summer and has fallen behind rivals, Insider reports.  Oracle spent $4 billion to package BlueKai, Datalogix, Moat and more into what’s now […]

We’re about to see a lot more enforcement against dark patterns from the Federal Trade Commission and on a state level. Holding companies to account for using deceptive language that pushes people into sharing their data has largely fallen to the FTC, but now, US privacy laws are starting to mention dark patterns too.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Back To The Scoreboard Ad tech is revisiting panels. In some cases, that also means revisiting Nielsen. Amazon Prime, which has exclusive airing rights to the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football,” signed a three-year deal with Nielsen on Tuesday to do audience measurement for […]

Nabiha Syed is CEO of The Markup, a non-profit newsroom that runs in-depth investigations into how companies large and small (but mostly large), use technology to reshape society – and it’s having an impact. The new lawsuit facing Meta and several hospitals over data sharing used to target ads on Facebook? Yep, that’s thanks to The Markup.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Fair Share In the years before Apple dropped its AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) framework on the industry’s head like a ton of bricks, the company discussed a possible special arrangement with Facebook to cut Apple in on a slice of Facebook’s revenue, The Wall Street […]

Waze, which was acquired by Google in 2013, now has 140 million monthly active users across the globe. Waze does serve ads based on real-time location, but the company refers to this as contextual because the ads are based on wherever a given device is in the moment, rather than any meaningful connections or patterns about a particular user.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Spam And Regs Google submitted a proposal to the Federal Election Commission earlier this month for an idea to allow authorized political emails to go directly to Gmail inboxes without the risk of its filters putting the message into spam. Google’s attorney said in […]

Marketers today have many data sources available to them, giving them the option to tailor data sets based on their specific needs. Whether it’s for audience segmentation or business operations, it can be tempting to buy the biggest data set available. However, it’s important that marketers think twice before diving in, especially when it comes to location data, writes Jeff White, CEO of Gravy Analytics.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Games Or Gains? Gaming on Netflix isn’t taking off. That’s hardly surprising – you may very well not even have known Netflix has gaming. And that’s a problem for Netflix, which is looking to increase its subscriber base (or at least keep existing subscribers […]

France’s data protection regulator, the CNIL, just hit Criteo with some not-so-très-bien news. The CNIL is planning to recommend a fine of $65 million against Criteo for alleged GDPR violations, the company announced in an SEC filing on Friday. The filing is very thin on detail. For example, it’s not even clear what practice or […]

Meta just got sued over an alleged violation of HIPAA. But where exactly does the health privacy law apply? With the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade, it’s more important than ever for digital advertisers to understand how HIPAA protects (and doesn’t protect) the use of sensitive health data in ad campaigns. Plus: Understanding the resurgence of MMM and the rise of incrementality measurement.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Speak Softly, And Carry A Big Tech Big Tech is on the defensive in the US, where it’s become politically popular to take shots at Alphabet, Meta and Amazon. But events that have transpired over the past year abroad demonstrate how powerful those […]

Many publishers are betting big on seller-defined audiences (SDA) as a centerpiece of their post-third-party-cookie monetization plans. Problem is, although publishers are eager to test the performance of SDAs, there’s still very little demand from the buy side. AdExchanger spoke with ad agencies and buy-side tech platforms to get their side of the story.

The expiration date for third-party cookies has been extended for another year. We talk through what the delay will mean for ad tech. Plus, an entire corner of the LUMAscape now exists within the Tremor-Amobee deal, the ultimate example in ad tech consolidation.