ftc

As measurement challenges intensify for DTC marketers, TikTokalytics vendors have been filling the gap. Plus: Analyzing the language at an FTC hearing on “commercial surveillance.”

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.

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.

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 […]

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 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.

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 […]

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 […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Supremely Disturbing Apple and Google (although primarily Apple) have been roiling developers with anti-tracking policies and initiatives, like the AppTrackingTransparency framework on iOS and the Android Privacy Sandbox. But that hasn’t kept them out of the regulatory spotlight. Au contraire. Lawmakers are calling for […]

TikTok doesn’t compete with Facebook or Instagram. Neither does Twitter, Pinterest or LinkedIn. Really. At least not according to the Federal Trade Commission in its antitrust complaint against Meta. But excluding TikTok is like a gift for Meta’s lawyers.

In January, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) updated its guidance pertaining to the Health Breach Notification Rule, making changes that are significant for any company using health-related data. The new FTC guidance greatly increases the likelihood of enforcement actions against companies sharing health data for advertising purposes. David LeDuc, VP for public policy at the Network Advertising Initiative, breaks down the FTC’s new policy.

When brands need to better position their products and services, they turn to the advertising industry. So how did the advertising industry allow the term “surveillance advertising” to gain a foothold, not just with aggressive privacy advocates but with lawmakers and regulators, asks Davis+Gilbert’s Gary Kibel.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Courting Disaster A California district court judge has scathingly reprimanded Google’s legal team. Google requested to withhold 6,232 of 6,322 documents in a privacy suit brought by Chrome users.  Google “cavalierly” claimed the review was justified but had no justification to support its claim, […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Not Kidding Around  During the State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Biden called on lawmakers to get cracking on legislation that bans ads targeted at kids. “It’s time to ban targeted advertising to children, [and to] demand tech companies stop collecting personal […]

Amazon vet Lartease Tiffith, the IAB’s newly appointed EVP of public policy, has a wide spectrum of responsibilities: lobbying against bills that ban data-driven advertising, then lobbying for a federal privacy law. He’s a week and a half in, and he’s got his work cut out for him.

You’ve probably heard the term “surveillance advertising” – used with increasing frequency – in reference to companies with an Orwellian agenda to keep tabs on you at all times. See the recently introduced Banning Surveillance Advertising Act. Minus the hyperbole, surveillance advertising is the practice of serving ads to individuals based on their personal information. But […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Flix It Public investor Bill Ackman scooped 3.1 million Netflix shares, a 0.68% stake in the company. The bulk buy by Pershing Square, Ackman’s fund, was inspired by Netflix’s recent stock plunge, reports The Wall Street Journal. Netflix missed […]

The Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday announced a joint effort to rewrite US antitrust law for handling mergers and acquisitions. Don’t hold your breath, though The two agencies are opening a 60-day public comment period for individuals, companies and organizations to submit concerns about M&A and antitrust regulation. That material will […]

OpenX CEO John Gentry on why the company isn’t going public in 2022, its recent COPPA settlement with the FTC and the ongoing challenge of ensuring quality supply in an open exchange.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Neeva Have I Eeva Paid To Search  The search engine startup Neeva launched its $5 per-month tier on Wednesday, Fast Company reports.  It’s small news – Neeva has some hundreds of thousands of users – but it’s an important marker because at least someone’s […]

What if all the privacy-safe, transparent, opt-in and consent-based digital advertising initiatives of the past few years turn out, a few years hence, to have been an entire waste of time? It’s not such a far-flung possibility. Privacy and consumer data solutions in the market have “hinged on the principles of notice and choice” for […]

“Data-Driven Thinking” is written by members of the media community and contains fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media. Today’s column is written by Gary Kibel, a partner in the digital media, technology and privacy practice group at Davis + Gilbert. Since the early days of the internet, when federal regulators expressed concern that […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. FTC You Next Time The FTC had its Facebook antitrust case dismissed, and recently refiled a new suit. The issue is if Facebook’s competition includes YouTube, Snap, Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit, Twitter, Spotify, Hulu and Netflix, then it’s hardly a monopolized market. The FTC’s […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Second Verse, Same As The First? The Federal Trade Commission is trying again to present a convincing antitrust case vs. Facebook after a federal court dismissed its initial lawsuit for failing to prove the social giant runs a monopoly. The FTC on Thursday filed […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Deep Dive Big Tech is really under the microscope these days, in the US and across the pond in the EU and UK, over alleged anticompetitive practices. So, what’s the latest beef? The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog group said it will […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Easy Come …  Just a couple of days after news broke that Antonio Garcia Martinez, vocal tweeter, former Facebook ad product manager and author of “Chaos Monkeys,” would join Apple as an ads engineer … Apple severed ties with Garcia Martinez following an employee […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Dark Underbelly You know when the opt-in button is, like, way bigger than the opt-out button, or a checkbox is ticked by default? Those are dark patterns, and regulators are starting to take notice. The Federal Trade Commission held an all-day workshop last week […]

Antitrust expert and legal scholar Lina Khan embodied the phrase “speak softly and carry a big stick” as she testified at her confirmation hearing on Wednesday for a spot on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Although some senators questioned her lack of experience, the 32-year-old Khan is a celebrity in legal circles. She rose to […]