Data Privacy

Going For The Cinematic Effect; Do The Youngs Shop Google?; X Marks The Spot

Even the CMA doesn’t seem to care about the Privacy Sandbox anymore. On Friday, it announced that it’s begun the process of “releasing” Google from its Sandbox commitments.

Life360, a popular family safety and tracking app, announced its first location-based ad targeting solution, called Place Ads, and a foot-traffic analytics product named Uplift that measures store visitation.

Open Intelligence is WPP’s Media’s new solution to help advertisers make sense of their data and use it in more ways, with a longer-term goal of decentralizing data.

AI-generated mystery pages are appearing on brand sites; Amazon Prime Video doubles its ad load; and bipartisan efforts to protect kids online get a new partisan focus under the Trump admin.

Marketers having to justify their budgets is nothing new, but macroeconomic anxiety is making the stakes feel higher.

Despite all the cookie drama, companies haven’t completely abandoned the Chrome Privacy Sandbox, and BU marketing professor Garrett Johnson has the receipts to prove it.

Can the IAB Tech Lab’s Trusted Server initiative really help restore publishers’ ownership of monetization and wrestle back control from Big Tech and walled gardens?

Google’s pivot on IP addresses shows it fears competition; the FTC investigates media watchdogs for advising brands not to spend on X; and Mondelez accuses Aldi of copying its snacks.

Michael Komasinski, Criteo’s newly-minted CEO, shares his vision for the company – and swears that Criteo doesn’t regret its huge investment in testing the Chrome Privacy Sandbox.

The modern marketing landscape is being rewritten in near real time. While economic uncertainty may tempt brands to retreat into the comfort of walled gardens, the truth is more nuanced, especially regarding data and identity solutions.

CTV ad platform MNTN has gone public; last week, the FTC dismissed a lawsuit brought against PepsiCo; the new US budget bill might ban state regulation of AI.

Enjoy this weekly comic from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

The era of fragmented, adversarial ad tech is winding down. A new paradigm is emerging defined by AI-first, end-to-end platforms and collaboration among buyers and sellers.

There’s a reason ad tech is no longer in a position to self regulate. Somewhere along the way, companies forgot to respect their consumers and so regulators stepped in.

The DOJ is proposing that Google should give rival ad exchanges and ad servers real-time access to bidding data from AdX – and Google agrees.

AdExchanger spoke to a number of programmatic leaders who testified in the DOJ’s Google antitrust trial last September.

Google isn’t a regulator. From an attorney’s point of view, its decrees don’t carry the force of law, and that’s what lawyers are concerned with: the law.

Google’s SSP and ad server businesses have been ruled monopolies. And Google Chrome isn’t going to change its third-party cookie opt-ins, further preserving third-party cookies. Go inside this momentous news.

Criteo dives into video ads; after 20 years, YouTube might be the world’s biggest media brand; Threads opens up for advertising.

Using pejorative labels, like “surveillance advertising,” does “nothing to help us understand the practice,” says Christopher Mufarrige, the newly appointed director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

You know that choice mechanism that Google said it was planning to release for third-party cookies in Chrome? Well, it’s not happening.

Monday was a busy day for antitrust attorneys in Washington, DC: It marked Day One of the the remedies phase of the Google search trial and the start of the second week of FTC v. Meta.

If the court ultimately orders Google to spin off AdX or DFP, the result would be a fundamental rebalancing of power across the digital advertising supply chain. For marketers, the implications are just as significant.

Temu pulled back on its US ad spend this week, as tariffs loom. Plus, in France, the ATT prompt was deemed anticompetitive and, as a result, will likely need to be changed.

The Google antitrust ruling will have wide-reaching implications for the tech industry at large, not just the ad businesses therein. But in the meantime, it’s only natural to see programmatic veterans letting off a bit of steam.

Contextual intelligence platform Precise TV is hoping to make it easier for kid-focused brands to reach their target audiences without compromising on privacy.

Do Google AI Overviews really bring exposure to more websites?; Meta considered an all-ad Instagram feed; and agencies are cautiously optimistic even as tariff concerns threaten upfronts season.

Many well-intentioned advertising standards efforts gather digital dust thanks to industry politics and competing interests. Here’s how the industry can stop sabotaging its own progress.

You know that old saw about how regulators aren’t technical and don’t understand how online advertising works? Yeah, that’s not a thing anymore.