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Blue checks for sale in biggest Instagram verification scheme revealed to date, reports Pro Publica

General

Aug 31, 2022

Since at least 2021, at least hundreds of people — including jewelers, crypto entrepreneurs, OnlyFans models and reality show TV stars — were clients of a scheme to get improperly verified as musicians on Instagram, according to the investigation’s findings and information from Meta.

In response to information provided by ProPublica and the findings of its own investigation, Meta has so far removed fraudulently applied verification badges from more than 300 Instagram profiles, and continues to review accounts.

The scheme, which likely generated millions in revenue for its operators, illustrates how easily major social, search and music platforms can be exploited to create fake personas with real-world consequences, such as monetizing a verified account.

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IAB Releases Intrinsic In-Game (IIG) Measurement Guidelines

General

Aug 31, 2022

Gaming / Metaverse

In a joint collaboration between IAB, IAB Tech Lab, and the Media Rating Council (MRC), IAB has released its Intrinsic In-Game (IIG) Measurement Guidelines to establish updated measurement guidelines for ads that appear within gameplay.

When IAB released its current standard of in-game ad measurement standards in 2009, video games and advertising technology were in a vastly different stage of development. The updated standards will address ad viewability, measurement, inactivity, and fraud with intrinsic in-game ads bringing them up to par with the rest of digital media.

Intrinsic in-game ads refers to native in-game or in-play ads that are placed ‘in the game’ enabling a seamless part of the gameplay environment.

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Apple is targeting small businesses for its advertising solutions, reports MarketWatch

General

Aug 31, 2022

MarketWatch found two recent job postings by Apple that suggest the company is looking to build out its burgeoning ad-tech team with folks who specialize in working with small businesses.

Specifically, the company says it’s looking for two product managers who are “inspired to make a difference in how digital advertising will work in a privacy-centric world” and who want to “design and build consumer advertising experiences.” An ideal candidate, Apple said, won’t only be savvy in advertising and mobile tech, and advertising on mobile tech, but will also have experience with “performance marketing, local ads or enabling small businesses.”

The listings state that Apple is looking for a manager who can “drive multi-year strategy and execution,” which suggests that Apple isn’t just tailing local advertisers but will likely be tailing those advertisers for a while. This move could hamper Meta’s entire business structure for good, ad-tech analysts said.

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Apple’s Chief Privacy Officer Set to Leave Company for Law Firm, reports Bloomberg

General

Aug 31, 2022

Jane Horvath, who first joined Apple in 2011, is taking a job at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. Horvath recently informed Apple’s legal department of her plans in an internal memo.

She vacates a role that has become increasingly key to Apple’s strategy. Horvath, who took the title of chief privacy officer last year, served as the company’s face in promoting its safeguards, alongside Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. The tech giant has touted features such as on-device processing and web-tracking prevention -- as well as stricter app advertising policies that have been controversial.

Privacy has become central to Apple’s marketing efforts, and Horvath represented the company in its dealings with trade groups and Capitol Hill. She was also responsible for Apple’s compliance with privacy rules globally, such as GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, in the European Union.

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Apple faces growing likelihood of DOJ antitrust suit, reports Politico

General

Aug 30, 2022

Justice Department lawyers are in the early stages of drafting a potential antitrust complaint against Apple, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. Various groups of prosecutors inside the DOJ are assembling the pieces for a potential lawsuit, the department’s antitrust division hopes to file suit by the end of the year.

The Justice Department has made no final decisions whether or when to sue Apple, and it’s still possible no case will be filed. The suit would be the latest major legal problem besetting the country’s biggest tech companies two years after federal regulators and multiple states filed antitrust cases against Google and Facebook.

The Apple investigation is one of a series of efforts by Congress, DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission to rein in the mammoth tech companies that have come to dominate the global internet, social media and online advertising. The FTC is also pursuing an antitrust investigation of Amazon involving both its retail and cloud computing businesses.

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Netflix Names Snapchat Execs As Its First Advertising Leaders, reports AdAge

General

Aug 30, 2022

Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor join the streaming giant to develop global ad strategy and lead sales team.

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Snap plans to lay off 20 percent of employees, reports The Verge

General

Aug 30, 2022

The layoffs, which Snap has been planning for the past several weeks, will begin on Wednesday and hit some departments harder than others, the people said. For example, the team working on ways for developers to build mini apps and games inside Snapchat will be severely impacted.

Another team that will see layoffs is Snap’s hardware division, which is responsible for its AR Spectacles glasses and the Pixy camera drone that was recently canceled after being on sale for just a few months. The company’s ad sales organization is also being restructured with Jeremi Gorman, Snap’s chief business officer, departing to run ads for Netflix.

Like its other tech peers, Snap hired aggressively during the pandemic. It entered March of 2020 with roughly 3,427 full-time employees and ended last quarter with 6,446, a 38 percent increase from the same time last year.

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Twitter’s Child Porn Problem Ruined Its Plans For An OnlyFans Competitor, reports The Verge

General

Aug 30, 2022

In the spring of 2022, Twitter considered making a radical change to the platform. After years of quietly allowing adult content on the service, the company would monetize it. The proposal: give adult content creators the ability to begin selling OnlyFans-style paid subscriptions, with Twitter keeping a share of the revenue.

Twitter convened 84 employees to form what it called a “Red Team.” The goal was “to pressure-test the decision to allow adult creators to monetize on the platform, by specifically focusing on what it would look like for Twitter to do this safely and responsibly,”.

The Red Team discovered that Twitter could not safely allow adult creators to sell subscriptions because the company was not — and still is not — effectively policing harmful sexual content on the platform. “Twitter cannot accurately detect child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity at scale,” the Red Team concluded in April 2022. The company also lacked tools to verify that creators and consumers of adult content were of legal age, the team found.

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Musk lawyers subpoena Twitter whistleblower, reports Axios

General

Aug 29, 2022

Lawyers for Elon Musk have filed a subpoena for Peiter Zatko, Twitter's former security chief who recently came forward as a whistleblower alleging his former employer deceived regulators, per a new court filing.

Musk's legal team is trying to leverage the wrongdoings alleged by Zatko, who goes by the pseudonym "Mudge," in its defense of Musk's attempt to walk away from his $44 billion takeover bid.

The subpoena asks for "documents and communications" regarding a number of the alleged wrongdoings Zatko claims, including "Twitter's tracking and measurement of user engagement."

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California on track to pass tough internet privacy rules for kids, reports Axios

General

Aug 29, 2022

California's legislature is on track to pass tough online privacy rules for kids this week, as the state once again pushes past the federal government in internet regulation.

The California proposal resembles new rules passed last year in the U.K. that govern how tech firms can target kids with push notifications, require messaging controls, and provide other features intended to keep minors safe online. The bill targets online services "likely to be accessed by children" under 18.

The bill, which includes hefty fines for noncompliance, puts California's attorney general in charge of enforcement. One tech industry win is an amendment that gives potential violators a "cure" period of 90 days before any fines.

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FTC Sues Kochava for Selling Data that Tracks People at Reproductive Health Clinics, Places of Worship, and Other Sensitive Locations

General

Aug 29, 2022

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against data broker Kochava Inc. for selling geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices that can be used to trace the movements of individuals to and from sensitive locations.

Kochava’s data can reveal people’s visits to reproductive health clinics, places of worship, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and addiction recovery facilities. The FTC alleges that by selling data tracking people, Kochava is enabling others to identify individuals and exposing them to threats of stigma, stalking, discrimination, job loss, and even physical violence.

The FTC’s lawsuit seeks to halt Kochava’s sale of sensitive geolocation data and require the company to delete the sensitive geolocation information it has collected.

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Walmart will roll out a new video ad unit to catch up with Amazon and Instacart, reports Insider

General

Aug 29, 2022

The retailer will roll out an alpha version of a video ad format that appears in searches on its website and app, Chief Revenue Officer Seth Dallaire told Insider. The ads will be sold using a cost-per-click model that charges advertisers each time someone clicks on an ad — a popular way for e-commerce advertisers to buy retail media.

Walmart already sells on-site video ads itself and partners with adtech firm The Trade Desk to sell video ads outside of its own properties, but the new sponsored video units will let sellers promote items based on consumer searches. The new ad format will also appear on the homepage of Walmart's website.

Walmart will release the video ad unit in alpha in Q4. It will roll out the unit broadly in 2023.

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Privacy bill triggers lobbying surge by data brokers, reports Politico

General

Aug 28, 2022

Congress has never been closer to passing a federal data privacy law — and the brokers that profit from information on billions of people are spending big to nudge the legislation in their favor.

RELX, TransUnion, Experian, Acxiom, and LiveRamp, boosted their collective spending on lobbying by roughly 11 percent in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period a year ago, according to lobbying disclosure records reviewed by POLITICO.

In total, the five data brokers reported spending about $1.73 million on lobbying during the quarter ending June 30, compared with $1.55 million during the same quarter of 2021.

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Meta settles Cambridge Analytica lawsuit in time to avoid Zuckerberg and Sandberg depositions, reports The Verge

General

Aug 26, 2022

The company has reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. A court filing reveals the parties have reached an agreement in principle and requested a stay of 60 days to finalize their written agreement. Without the settlement and stay, Zuckerberg and Sandberg would have been deposed before September 20th.

The lawsuit alleged that Facebook illegally shared user data with third parties, and said the company didn’t adequately protect that data from being abused by bad actors. Zuckerberg faced questions from Congress in 2018 that didn’t do much to clear up the scandal or explain exactly what happened with Cambridge Analytica, a firm hired by the Trump presidential campaign that was able to scrape data from millions of Facebook profiles.

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Netflix Eyes $7-to-$9 Price for Its New Ad-Supported Plan, reports Bloomberg

General

Aug 26, 2022

Netflix Inc. is considering pricing its new advertising-supported tier at $7 to $9 a month, half as much as its current, most-popular plan, which costs $15.49 monthly with no commercials.

Netflix plans to sell about four minutes of commercials per hour for the ad-supported service, far less than most of its peers, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. The company will show advertisements before and during some programs, but not after.

Netflix plans to introduce its new cheaper option during the final three months of the year in at least a half dozen markets. The company has said the full rollout may have to wait until early next year.

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As midterm political spending outpaces 2020, streaming and TikTok become the focus, reports Digiday

General

Aug 26, 2022

As of July, the 2022 election cycle is already outpacing 2020 by around $700 million, according to AdImpact. In August alone, AdImpact reported a whopping increase of 203% in political spending as the raft of November elections draws closer.

While local broadcast television still accounts for the majority of political advertising, digital ads on platforms like Facebook, Google and connected TV services are catching up. And with access to more services and fundraising tools, campaigns are now spending earlier than in past elections and contributing to a bigger total spend.

An estimate from AdImpact now predicts a total of $9.7 billion will be spent across broadcast, cable and streaming and digital platforms. Kantar estimates a slightly lower midterm spend of $7.8 billion across broadcast, radio, digital and over-the-top (OTT).

Social media has steadily increased its share of dollars in political campaigning, and this time around fast-growing TikTok may be a prime beneficiary as it is a natural choice for reaching the younger demographic.

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Twitter labeled factual information about covid-19 as misinformation, reports The Washington Post

General

Aug 25, 2022

Over the past week, Twitter has flagged dozens of tweets with factual information about covid-19 as misinformation and in some cases has suspended the accounts of doctors, scientists, and patient advocates in response to their posts warning people about the illness’s dangers.

Many of the tweets have since had the misinformation labels removed, and the suspended accounts have been restored. But the episode has shaken many scientific and medical professionals, who say Twitter is a key way they try to publicize the continuing risk of covid to a population that has grown weary of more than two years of shifting claims about the illness.

Throughout the pandemic, Twitter has struggled to contain misinformation on its platform. In April 2020, Oxford University researchers released a study showing that nearly 60 percent of false claims about covid remained online without a warning label. Anti-vaccine sentiment has also thrived on Twitter. A February report by the think tank the German Marshall Fund found that vaccine skeptics significantly outperformed news outlets on Twitter.

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Twitter is launching a test version of Twitter Spaces today that includes podcasts, reports The Verge

General

Aug 25, 2022

Audio Advertising

The redesigned Spaces tab opens with Stations, topic-based playlists combining podcast episodes pulled from RSS with Twitter’s social audio events and recordings. It functions like a Pandora station but for spoken word and is pretty different from the a la carte listening podcast consumers are used to on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Live and upcoming spaces are still in the tab, further down the page. The test will roll out to a random group of users across the world, initially only in English.

Twitter and podcasts could be a fruitful fit. Twitter Spaces, which launched in 2020 on the heels of Clubhouse’s pandemic success, already gives the app a foothold in audio. Jones said that, based on company data, 45 percent of Twitter users are also monthly podcast listeners.

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Google Announces Digital out-of-home ads now in Display & Video 360

General

Aug 25, 2022

Digital Out-Of-Home

Today, Google is making digital out-of-home ads available to all Display & Video 360 (DV360) users so that they can reach people out in their real-world with the efficiency of programmatic technology. This includes screens in public places such as stadiums, airports, bus stops, shopping centers, elevators, taxis and more.

DV360 already partners with exchanges Hivestack, Magnite, PlaceExchange, Ströer SSP, VIOOH and Vistar Media. These exchanges give access to large media owners around the world like ClearChannel, Intersection, JCDecaux, Lamar and Ströer. All of this inventory can be secured via programmatic deals.

Digital out-of-home ads placed through DV360 are not personalized, and do not use individual identifiers or any user location data. Instead, advertisers can reach people based on contextual information of the screen location, like a traditional out-of-home ad, but with the flexibility and ease of programmatic.

Publishers provide Display & Video 360 with an impression multiplier, which estimates the number of people who may have seen an ad. This estimate, which isn’t based on an individual’s data, helps advertisers properly measure the impact of their digital out-of-home campaigns.

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The Federal Communications Commission to probe how mobile carriers use consumer location data, reports Reuters

General

Aug 25, 2022

The Federal Communications Commission said Thursday the agency will investigate mobile carriers’ compliance with rules requiring them to disclose to consumers how they are using and sharing location data.

In July, Rosenworcel asked the 15 top mobile carriers including Verizon , AT&T, T-Mobile, Comcast, Alphabet's Google Fi and Charter Communications for information about their data retention and privacy policies and practices. The FCC released the responses Thursday and made it easier for consumers to file complaints on the FCC website.

In February 2020, the FCC proposed fining four major U.S. wireless carriers over $200 million for failing to protect consumers' location information.

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Google to run ads educating users about fake news, reports BBC

General

Aug 25, 2022

Google Jigsaw, which tackles online security dangers, will run adverts on YouTube, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook. Researchers found the videos improved people's ability to recognise manipulative content. They will be shown in Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland to combat fake news about Ukrainian refugees.

The research was founded on a developing area of study called "prebunking", which investigates how disinformation can be debunked by showing people how it works - before they are exposed to it.

Cambridge University said this was the first real-world field study of 'inoculation theory' on a social media platform. Professor Sander van der Linden, who co-authored the study, said the research results were sufficient to take the concept of inoculation forward and scale it up, to potentially reach "hundreds of millions" of social media users.

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TikTok Ramps Up Connected TV Push, reports AdAge

General

Aug 25, 2022

TikTok is currently seeking a product manager of user growth, which according to the job listing will focus on driving the “TikTok Connected TV product strategy, value proposition and growth.” A qualified applicant needs experience in user experience design, with optional “prior experience in building apps for TV," according to the listing.

TikTok—now boasting over 1 billion monthly active users—has already started making inroads in the CTV space, with apps on Fire TV, Vizio, Google TV and Samsung. It appears it is looking to take its explosive growth in short-form entertainment onto living room screens.

Similarly, YouTube is also looking to expand into the CTV space. According to a recent report from Protocol, the Google-owned platform showed what appeared to be a CTV-integrated interface for its YouTube Shorts content during a recent internal partner event. TikTok’s job listing and YouTube’s expanded CTV functionality reflect efforts to replicate the success of short-form video from mobile to TV screens.

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Sephora fined $1.2M in first public CCPA enforcement, reports Compliance Week

General

Aug 25, 2022

Cosmetics retailer Sephora agreed to pay $1.2 million in the first public enforcement action under California’s landmark consumer privacy law.

Sephora violated the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) as they sold consumers’ personal data after they had requested their information not be sold, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a press release Wednesday.

The CCPA, which took effect in 2020, is the country’s first and only active comprehensive state data privacy law. Since the start of 2021, Virginia, Colorado, Utah, and Connecticut have passed privacy laws of their own, each set to take effect in 2023. Congress is considering whether a federal data privacy law is needed and how strong the protections should be.

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Ad verification firm DoubleVerify detected Internet-of-Things ad fraud, which would have cost partners $10 million, reports Adweek

General

Aug 24, 2022

A brand wants to buy ad space on a streaming platform, like Hulu or Tubi, sending their media buyer to an ad-tech vendor to bid. But instead of the request landing on a TV in a family’s living room, it doesn’t reach any eyeballs. On the backend, the device the ad actually appeared on resembles a smart refrigerator, smart watch or another Internet of Things (IOT) device.

In reality, the device was totally fake. Fraudsters use publicly available lists of connected devices to find plausible ways to trick ad tech pipes, in a new ad fraud scheme identified by ad-tech firm DoubleVerify. It’s a more updated version of classic domain spoofing, the passing off of fake or low-quality impressions as those from a pricier tier.

U.S. ad spend directed toward CTV is expected to increase by 32% this year to $19 billion, per eMarketer, while the connected devices market is anticipated to rise by 18% to 14.4 billion connections this year, according to IoT analytics. While there have been instances of fraud in the connected device market, the growth trajectories are giving fraudsters more vectors to hide behind.

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New Updates to the Ads.Txt Protocol Aim to Further Distinguish Owners From Operators, reports Adweek

General

Aug 23, 2022

First introduced in 2017, the ads.txt and sellers.json system acts as a publicly visible ledger that allows anyone to determine who is authorized to sell publishers’ advertising inventory. (To view an ads.txt file, type in the URL of a website and add /ads.txt.)

The new, optional terminology introduced by the update, the ownerdomain and managerdomain specifications, aims to further distinguish between specific domains, the domain owners and the companies they have chosen to sell their inventory.

For example, Condé Nast owns and monetizes nearly a dozen editorial titles, including Vogue and The New Yorker, an ownership dynamic that puts it at odds with the tidy dichotomy of direct or reseller. Direct inventory is typically more valuable than reseller inventory, as it is more exclusive. As a result, any error or confusion in the categorization process risked devaluing direct inventory or falsely over-valuing reseller inventory.

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MediaMath Backs The TradeDesk’s Unified ID 2.0, reports AdExchanger

General

Aug 23, 2022

User Identifiers

On Tuesday, MediaMath announced its integration with UID2, which is an open-source industry initiative, spearheaded by The Trade Desk, that aims to replace third-party cookies with hashed and encrypted email-based IDs. MediaMath also supports other identity solutions on the market, including LiveRamp, ID5, Lotame, Parrable and LiveIntent.

Advertisers will be able to target first-party audiences that are based on UID2 IDs. This new identity signal should help bring some level of addressability to browsers, such as Safari and Firefox, that currently don’t allow third-party cookies by default, as well as Chrome whenever Google finally pulls the plug on third-party cookies in its browser.

Although the Unified ID identifier has been deployed on more than 14,000 websites, its absorption rate is only 37%, according to data from web crawler Sincera. Absorption rate is a calculation of how often supply-side platforms actually include an identifier in outbound bid requests. Even when a publisher deploys an ID (as in, the code is on the page), that doesn’t mean the ID is getting ingested into the bidstream.

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Walmart Launches Rewards, Giving Shoppers More Deals While Brands Get More Data, reports AdAge

General

Aug 23, 2022

Shoppers can earn and redeem rewards both in-store and online. For online shoppers, customers can tap the “add reward” option under eligible items on Walmart’s site or app to claim the savings and then apply their rewards balance to their purchase at checkout.

Walmart plans to integrate its new rewards program with its growing digital advertising business by allowing suppliers to promote product savings within sponsored ads.

Walmart’s venture into digital rewards follows the industry trend of pivoting away from paper coupons. An Inmar Intelligence survey released last year found that in 2020 shoppers used electronic coupons more often than ones in free-standing paper inserts — the first time that had ever happened.

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Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless and negligent cybersecurity policies, reports CNN

General

Aug 23, 2022

Twitter has major security problems that pose a threat to its own users' personal information, to company shareholders, to national security, and to democracy, according to an explosive whistleblower disclosure obtained exclusively by CNN and The Washington Post.

The whistleblower, who has agreed to be publicly identified, is Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, who was previously the company's head of security, reporting directly to the CEO. Zatko further alleges that Twitter's leadership has misled its own board and government regulators about its security vulnerabilities, including some that could allegedly open the door to foreign spying or manipulation, hacking and disinformation campaigns.

The whistleblower also alleges Twitter does not reliably delete users' data after they cancel their accounts, in some cases because the company has lost track of the information, and that it has misled regulators about whether it deletes the data as it is required to do. The whistleblower also says Twitter executives don't have the resources to fully understand the true number of bots on the platform, and were not motivated to. Bots have recently become central to Elon Musk's attempts to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the company (although Twitter denies Musk's claims).

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The Trade Desk is moving into video game ads, and it could be a $100 million business in 5 years, reports Insider

General

Aug 23, 2022

Gaming / Metaverse

Over the past year, The Trade Desk has put together a six-person team to help advertisers buy ads in console games, mobile apps, and PC games, said Natrian Maxwell, general manager of emerging channels at The Trade Desk, who's heading the team along with senior manager Harry Wilkins.

Maxwell said that gaming advertising could become a $100 million business for The Trade Desk in the next four or five years. The global in-game advertising market totaled $6.8 billion in 2021 and is predicted to reach $17.6 billion by 2030 — growing at 11% each year — according to Allied Market Research.

Maxwell said that the gaming team is working with game developers and publishers to open up more ad inventory. Advertisers can currently use The Trade Desk to buy and target gaming ads on mobile apps, PC games, and games played through connected TV apps like Hulu and Peacock. The Trade Desk is also working on opening up ad inventory through console-based gaming.

The Trade Desk's gaming team is part of a larger internal group called emerging channels that focuses on under-the-radar but growing ad channels and includes retail media, audio, social, mobile, and DOOH in addition to gaming.

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Microsoft is putting more ads in Outlook on iOS and Android, reports The Verge

General

Aug 22, 2022

The Outlook mobile app gives users two options for organizing their inbox: a single inbox with everything in it or a tabbed inbox split into two categories — “focused” with important mail and “Other” with all the rest. Previously, Microsoft only put ads in the “Other” tab for free users, but it’s now adding them to the single-inbox mode, too.

Microsoft confirmed the change to The Verge. “For free users of Outlook, ads are shown in their inbox and they can choose to enable the ‘Focused inbox’ feature if they would like to see ads only in the ‘Other’ inbox,” says Microsoft spokesperson Caitlin Roulston in a statement.

The ads appear at the top of an inbox and look like real emails, similar to how both Microsoft and Google display ads inside the web versions of Outlook and Gmail. You can swipe to delete the email-like ads, but they’ll soon reappear, and opening one will display advertising content within an in-app browser.

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Large Ad Agency Networks Have So Far Resisted the Economic Downturn, reports WSJ

General

Aug 22, 2022

Top global advertising agency networks have so far defied widespread declines in ad spending that have hurt digital platforms, publishers and broadcasters. The five largest agency holding companies— WPP PLC, Publicis Groupe SA, Omnicom Group Inc., Interpublic Group of Cos. and Dentsu Group Inc. —have exceeded their prepandemic growth rates in recent months.

Some of the companies recorded revenue declines in the years preceding 2021 as advertisers moved more of their money toward digital platforms like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, which sometimes bypass agencies and sell directly to marketers. This year, however, all five raised their guidance for revenue growth to somewhere between 6% and 7%, an increase of as much as 2 percentage points over estimates made earlier in 2022.

Publicis Chief Strategy Officer Carla Serrano said the company’s strongest growth so far this year has come from its Publicis Sapient division, which helps companies expand their online presence and e-commerce operations.

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Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Oracle For Its Worldwide Surveillance Machine

General

Aug 22, 2022

Dr Johnny Ryan, Senior Fellow of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL), is one of three class representatives in a new lawsuit filled against Oracle in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday.

Together with two other plaintiffs, Michael Katz-Lacabe and Dr Jennifer Golbeck, they are acting on behalf of worldwide Internet users who have been subject to Oracle’s alleged privacy violations. They are represented by Lieff Cabraser, which has run significant privacy cases against Big Tech.

The complaint against Oracle alleges violations of the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Constitution of the State of California, the California Invasion of Privacy Act, competition law, and the common law.

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Netflix Says No to Advertising in Kids Programs, New Movies, reports Bloomberg

General

Aug 19, 2022

Advertising To Children

Kids programming and new movies will stay commercial free when the company introduces its advertising-supported service, according to people familiar with the plans. The company has also decided original movies should stay ad-free, at least at first.

Netflix is still finalizing plans for its advertising-supported service, which means details and strategies could still change. The company aims to introduce the ad tier early next year.

Analysts estimate Netflix could generate $3 billion to $4 billion a year in ad sales. That would make it one of the biggest players in online video advertising. Netflix won’t insert ads into its existing service.

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Elon Musk subpoenas IAS and DoubleVerify in Twitter suit over takeover deal, reports Reuters

General

Aug 19, 2022

Elon Musk is seeking documents from advertising technology firms as part of his quest to gain more information on bot and spam accounts on Twitter, according to filings in a Delaware court on Thursday.

Musk's lawyers have subpoenaed both Integral Ad Science and DoubleVerify for any documents or communications on their involvement in reviewing accounts or participation in any audit of Twitter's user base, as the firms use technology to independently verify that digital ads are viewed by real people. Advertisers use these services to ensure the ads they pay for are seen by potential customers and not automated bots.

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Post Roe v Wade, Mozilla’s review of pregnancy and period trackers sheds light on data privacy concerns, reports Digiday

General

Aug 18, 2022

A new report from Mozilla shows just how many ways pregnancy and period trackers collect and share advertising-related data and other info that also might be shared with law enforcement.

According to a review of 25 period and pregnancy tracking apps and devices conducted by Mozilla, researchers determined that 18 did not meet expectations for privacy and security standards. Instead, they found a “data buffet” of phone numbers, addresses, device IDs, IP addresses, unique advertising IDs — such as Apple’s IDFA and Android’s Google Advertising ID — along with sensitive info about menstrual cycles, sexual activity, doctor appointments and pregnancy symptoms.

Mozilla isn’t the first organization to review pregnancy and period app privacy policies. Last month, the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA)—an independent organization in the U.K. that reviews health care apps for government agencies—found that 84% of the 25 trackers and 24 app developers it reviewed shared data with third parties. While 68% shared data for marketing purposes such as contact lists, just 40% did so for research or to improve the app.

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Google Workers Petition Company to Stop Collecting Abortion Data, reports WSJ

General

Aug 18, 2022

A group of workers at Google parent Alphabet Inc. has asked the company to stop collecting data on users seeking information about abortions, according to a petition sent to Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai this week.

The petition, signed by more than 650 workers, also called on the company to remove search results for crisis pregnancy centers, which it said were misleading to those seeking abortions. Crisis pregnancy centers are typically nonprofits that counsel women against having abortions.

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How Oracle lost the marketing cloud war to Salesforce, according to former employees, reports Insider

General

Aug 18, 2022

Oracle spent over $4 billion over six years to acquire leading marketing and adtech startups like BlueKai, Datalogix, and Moat to build Oracle Marketing Cloud and about a year later, Oracle Data Cloud, which would later become Oracle Advertising. The idea was to combine them to help marketers make sense of all the data they had on customers and build relationships with them through consistent and relevant messaging.

In theory, the new Oracle Data Cloud business would also sync with other Oracle services like tech for sales or human-resources departments — enticing clients to buy more Oracle technology, which would become a fixture across every facet of their business.

This summer, Oracle cut Oracle Advertising and Marketing Cloud employees in a massive reorganization. Multiple former employees said under Rob Tarkoff, the Oracle executive vice president who was appointed to lead the two businesses, the company failed to invest in Marketing Cloud, which caused Oracle to lose ground to Salesforce's competing product.

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TikTok, Meta can see user behavior on in-app browsers, according to research, reports Marketing Brew

General

Aug 18, 2022

Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok have the ability to track interactions like searches, clicks, screenshots, and “form inputs” (like passwords and credit card numbers) within what’s called an in-app browser, according to tech researcher Felix Krause.

In research published last week on his blog, Krause was able to show that Meta appears to have access to all sorts of data when users open Instagram’s in-app browser—without allowing users a way to opt out. He followed up that research this week, finding that TikTok’s in-app browser appears to have the ability to monitor “all keyboard inputs” including “every tap on any button, link, image, or other component rendered” on the in-app browser.

While its ads position it as a company that’s pro-privacy and anti-tracking, creating an in-app browser isn’t currently against Apple’s own app-development guidelines. It only recommends that companies rely on Safari as an in-app browser.

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Tech Companies Are Relinquishing Some Control of Online Ads to Users, reports WSJ

General

Aug 17, 2022

TikTok and the company behind YourAdChoices are planning to follow Meta, Alphabet, and others in introducing settings that let users opt out of ads from certain categories.

Advertisers have the ability to precisely target individuals based on their assumed interests, but consumers, for the most part, haven’t been given the tools to ask them to stop.

That has frustrated web users, especially those who have personal reasons for not wanting to see certain ads, such as people who experienced a miscarriage and don’t want to see campaigns for baby clothes, people recovering from eating disorders who don’t want to see pitches for diets, and teetotalers who don’t want to see alcohol ads.

Letting consumers indicate their interests and sensitivities also benefits platforms and publishers: They can tell advertisers they are at lesser risk of wasting money going after the wrong kind of consumer.

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Amazon Tests TikTok-Like Feed With Product Photos And Videos In Its App, reports WSJ

General

Aug 17, 2022

Amazon is testing a feature in its app that would show users a TikTok-style photo and video feed of products for shoppers to share with other users. The test is currently visible to a small number of Amazon employees, according to a person familiar with it.

Amazon joins other major technology companies such as Meta Platforms and Google parent Alphabet that have attempted to bump up engagement through short videos and an endless stream of content.

The widget brings shoppers to a feed that shows a stream of images and videos of products, with shoppers able to like, share and ultimately purchase items.

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Netflix’s Ad-Supported Plan Will Block Downloads of Shows, Films, reports Bloomberg

General

Aug 17, 2022

Netflix won't let users of its new ad-supported tier download shows and movies to their devices for offline viewing, according to code found inside of the company’s iPhone app, removing a feature that customers enjoy on its regular service.

“Downloads available on all plans except Netflix with ads,” according to text in the app that was discovered by developer Steve Moser and shared with Bloomberg News. The code also suggests that users won’t be able to skip ads -- a common move in the streaming world -- and playback controls won’t be available during ad breaks.

Rival services such as Disney’s Hulu, Warner Bros.’ HBO Max and Comcast Corp.’s Peacock already rely on ad-supported tiers to fuel growth. The budget versions of services like HBO Max also turn off the downloading option.

Netflix has previously said the ad-based service will be available in multiple regions and that Microsoft Corp. will serve as its sales and technology partner for the advertising system.

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Amazon is dangling the possibility of big commissions to get creators to work with advertisers on its platform, reports Insider

General

Aug 17, 2022

The company is letting advertisers test a new tool that helps brands find creators and pay them more than standard commission rates. Amazon is also pitching advertisers to sponsor its influencer events, with some opportunities starting at $35,000.

These moves are coming as other companies like Shopify, TikTok, Instagram, and creator tech platforms like LTK are also developing tools to help creators and brands work with each other.

Amazon started beta testing a tool called Creator Connections last year, but many advertisers said they only got to try it out in early August. The tool matches advertisers with up to 50 creators, so a cosmetics company can easily find a beauty influencer for instance.

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VidMob, Which Makes Software for Marketers, Raises $110 Million, reports WSJ

General

Aug 17, 2022

Investment Rounds

The Series D funding round led by Shamrock Capital will help the company expand its platform for data-led creativity in advertising and other brand work.

VidMob has now raised $210 million and is valued at close to $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. The company was valued at $290 million when it closed its Series C round in 2021, people familiar with the matter said at the time.

VidMob intends to use the new funding to help build a platform that would help businesses centralize creative activities and provide data-informed creative in paid advertising and other areas, such as emails or product detail pages on commerce sites.

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Meta Shortens Edit Window on Political Ads Ahead Of November Midterms, reports Adweek

General

Aug 17, 2022

Meta will no longer allow any edits to social, political or electoral ads that have previously been approved to run in the week prior to Election Day, the company announced. This means that ads relevant to these topics must be created and have delivered impressions with a valid disclaimer before Nov. 1.

Meta has faced constant criticism for years around how it handles political ads, especially after the 2016 U.S. elections. Facebook also came under fire for last year’s Jan. 6 insurrection, where the platform was criticized for hosting insurrection threats months before the siege of the U.S. Capitol.

Meta claims to take steps to prevent misinformation in lieu of voting and false narratives about election fraud mostly by conservative lawmakers. This includes the removal of content with misleading claims about dates, locations, times and methods of voting. False information around who can vote, whether a vote will be counted, and qualifications for voting will also be removed.

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Twitter Debuts Twitter Pixel, Conversions API, App Purchase Optimization, reports Adweek

General

Aug 16, 2022

These new options join Site Visit Optimization, Aggregated Measurement and Events Manager, which the social network debuted in January.

The new Twitter Pixel brings improved web attribution, enabling advertisers to measure more actions than previously available, such as when someone adds an item to their digital shopping cart.

The Conversion API, being introduced to all advertisers, is a measurement solution that lets them connect to Twitter’s API endpoint and send conversion events to Twitter from their servers without using third-party cookies.

App Purchase Optimization lets advertisers deliver ads to the people who are most likely to install the app or make a purchase, using machine learning to determine those audiences.

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Two new ad formats could grow Apple’s booming ad division by $1 billion a year, reports Insider

General

Aug 16, 2022

Apple has begun briefing advertisers and developers in recent weeks about two new ad formats it plans to roll out within the App Store. The new ads mark the latest development in the rapid expansion of Apple's advertising division.

"Today" ads will sit among the editorial content on the first page as users open the App Store app and be marked with an "ad" label. The "You Might Also Like" ads will sit within app product pages.

Advertisers will be able to target users by age, location, gender, and new versus returning customers — though they can't target any segment that has a cohort of fewer than 5,000 users.

Omdia Principal Analyst Matthew Bailey estimated the new ads could be worth an extra $1 billion in annual ad revenue to Apple by 2027. Bailey forecasts that overall, Apple will generate $9 billion in ad sales by that time, up from an estimated $5.3 billion this year. Analysts at Arete Research think Apple's ad business could hit the $10 billion mark as soon as next year.

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Walmart Q2 earnings report advertising business up by nearly 30% YoY

+ 30% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 16, 2022

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Unity Software rejects AppLovin's takeover offer, to stick with ironsource, reports Reuters

M&A

Aug 15, 2022

AppLovin last week offered to buy Unity in a $17.54 billion all-stock deal, on condition Unity terminated its plans to acquire AppLovin's smaller competitor ironSource.

Unity said on Monday AppLovin's offer was not in the best interest of shareholders and "would not reasonably be expected to result in a 'Superior Proposal' as defined in Unity's merger agreement with ironSource."

"The Board continues to believe that the ironSource transaction is compelling and will deliver an opportunity to generate long-term value," Unity's Chief Executive Officer John Riccitiello said in a statement.

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Walmart Delivers New Benefit for Walmart+ Members: A Paramount+ Subscription at No Extra Cost

General

Aug 15, 2022

Walmart+ members will be able to stream premium entertainment as a benefit for the first time as part of their membership starting in September. The Paramount+ Essential Plan will give Walmart+ members access to Paramount+ content.

“We know Walmart+ is providing members real value in their every day – from grocery shopping to filling up their tank and more,” said Chris Cracchiolo, senior vice president and general manager of Walmart+. “With the addition of Paramount+, we are demonstrating our unique ability to help members save even more and live better by delivering entertainment for less, too. Eighty-five percent of U.S. households use streaming services and Paramount+ has the premium content and broad appeal that our members are looking for – like Walmart, they have something for everyone. We’re excited about the launch and what comes next for Walmart+.”

“Paramount has enjoyed a close relationship with Walmart for years, and Walmart customers connect with Paramount's beloved brands, content, and characters every day through a range of consumer products available throughout Walmart stores," said Jeff Shultz, chief strategy officer and chief business development officer, Paramount Streaming. “Now, pairing Walmart’s expansive reach across the country with Paramount+'s broad and popular content that offers something for everyone is a unique opportunity to expand our partnership. Together we will bring Walmart+ members the full breadth of Paramount+ programming.”

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An ongoing dispute over privacy between Apple and Facebook (Meta) is roiling the digital economy, reports WSJ

General

Aug 12, 2022

The feud took off last year, when Apple rolled out iOS 14.5, a version of its mobile operating system that made it easier than ever for iPhone and iPad users to opt out of letting apps like Facebook track their activity on their devices.

The two companies weren’t always at odds. In fact, they were almost business partners. In the years before the change, Apple suggested a series of possible arrangements that would earn Apple a slice of Facebook’s revenue.

One idea that was discussed was creating a subscription-based version of Facebook that would be free of ads, according to people familiar with the discussions. Because Apple collects a cut of subscription revenue for apps in its App Store, that product could have generated significant revenue.

The companies also haggled over whether Apple was entitled to a piece of Facebook’s sales from so-called boosted posts. Facebook considers boosts ads, but Apple argued that boosts should be considered in-app purchases. Apple’s standard terms would entitle it to take a 30% share of those sales.

Read more on WSJ.

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YouTube Advances Plans for Streaming Video Marketplace, reports WSJ

General

Aug 12, 2022

YouTube is planning to launch an online store for streaming video services and has renewed talks with entertainment companies about participating in the platform, according to people close to the recent discussions.

The company hopes the new platform, which it is referring to internally as a “channel store” and which has been in the works for at least 18 months, could be available as early as this fall, some of the people said.

YouTube currently allows subscribers to YouTube TV, its $64.99-a-month online package of cable channels, to add on a subscription to services such as HBO Max. The new marketplace would allow consumers to choose streaming services a la carte through the main YouTube app.

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Meta is injecting code into browsers to follow those who click links in its apps, reports The Guardian

General

Aug 11, 2022

According to new research from an ex-Google engineer, Facebook and Instagram have been taking advantage of the fact that users who click on links in their app are taken to webpages in an “in-app browser”, controlled by Meta, rather than sent to the user’s web browser of choice, such as Safari or Firefox.

“The Instagram app injects their tracking code into every website shown, including when clicking on ads, enabling them [to] monitor all user interactions, like every button and link tapped, text selections, screenshots, as well as any form inputs, like passwords, addresses and credit card numbers,” says Felix Krause, a privacy researcher who founded an app development tool acquired by Google in 2017.

In a statement, Meta said that injecting a tracking code obeyed users’ preferences on whether or not they allowed apps to follow them, and that it was only used to aggregate data before being applied for targeted advertising or measurement purposes for those users who opted out of such tracking.

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Major publishers are buying ads in mobile games like Subway Surfers to juice traffic, reports Marketing Brew

General

Aug 11, 2022

Marketing Brew observed the mobile game Subway Surfers directing traffic to major publishers’ websites using a practice called “rewarded inventory,” where players can earn in-game rewards for sitting through advertisements. But in this case, instead of sitting through a commercial, users are expected to scroll through articles.

Essentially, brands that might have been trying to reach a certain audience—like women interested in skin-care routines who read New Beauty—could be showing up in front of Subway Surfers players.

During the research, almost every other ad Marketing Brew watched was for a publisher, including Vanity Fair, MadameNoire, and HealthCentral. By the end of the three weeks, they watched 365 ads on Subway Surfers, and 124 of them were articles from 26 different publishers.

Media buyers who spoke with Marketing Brew told them this can be a disingenuous strategy. For example, if you’re buying the LA Times, you expect your ad to reach people actually reading the LA Times.

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Outbrain Q2 earnings report $251 million in revenue, up 2% YoY; Adjusted EBITDA down by 76% YoY

+ 2% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 11, 2022

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FTC Explores Rules Cracking Down on Commercial Surveillance and Lax Data Security Practices

General

Aug 11, 2022

The Federal Trade Commission today announced it is exploring rules to crack down on harmful commercial surveillance and lax data security. Commercial surveillance is the business of collecting, analyzing, and profiting from information about people. Mass surveillance has heightened the risks and stakes of data breaches, deception, manipulation, and other abuses.

The business of commercial surveillance can incentivize companies to collect vast troves of consumer information, only a small fraction of which consumers proactively share. Companies reportedly surveil consumers while they are connected to the internet – every aspect of their online activity, their family and friend networks, browsing and purchase histories, location and physical movements, and a wide range of other personal details.

Companies use algorithms and automated systems to analyze the information they collect. And they make money by selling information through the massive, opaque market for consumer data, using it to place behavioral ads, or leveraging it to sell more products.

The deadline for submitting comments will be 60 days after the notice is published in the Federal Register in the coming days. Submitted comments will be posted to Regulations.gov. The public will also have an opportunity to share their input on these topics during a virtual public forum on September 8, 2022.

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Starting Dec. 8 in the U.S., Disney+ with commercials will be $7.99 per month; currently the price of Disney+ without ads, reports CNBC

General

Aug 10, 2022

Disney unveiled a new pricing structure that incorporates an advertising-supported Disney+ as part of an effort to make its streaming business profitable.

Starting Dec. 8 in the U.S., Disney+ with commercials will be $7.99 per month — currently the price of Disney+ without ads. The price of ad-free Disney+ will rise 38% to $10.99 — a $3 per month increase.

The price of Hulu without ads will rise by $2 per month, from $12.99 to $14.99, effective as of Oct. 10. Hulu with ads will go up by $1 per month, rising from $6.99 to $7.99. Disney announced last month that ESPN+ with ads would go up 43% to $9.99 per month.

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Disney Q2 earnings report $21.5 billion in revenue, up 26% YoY; adding 14.4 million Disney+ subscribers in Q2

+ 26% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 10, 2022

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IronSource Q2 earnings report $183 million in revenue, up 35% YoY; Adjusted EBITDA up 22% YoY

+ 35% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 10, 2022

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Applovin Q2 earnings report $776 million in total revenue, up 16% YoY; Software Platform revenue up 118% YoY

+ 16% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 10, 2022

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US lawmakers want to probe whether online advertising poses a national security threat, reports Insider

General

Aug 10, 2022

US lawmakers have asked the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to investigate whether "foreign weaponization" of widely available adtech data poses a national security risk, a move that has the potential to deal a major blow to the online ad industry.

Congress in late July passed an amended version of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2023, which included a new section focusing on data drawn from online ad auctions that could be used to geolocate individuals or gain other information about them.

If this section makes it into the final version — which the Senate also has to pass — the Office for the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) will have 60 days after the Act becomes law to produce a risk assessment. The assessment will look into "the counterintelligence risks of, and the exposure of intelligence community personnel to, tracking by foreign adversaries through advertising technology data," the Act states.

It's the first time adtech has been called out in such a bill and could cast fresh scrutiny over companies' data security and "know your customer" (KYC) practices, experts said.

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Facebook Profits from White Supremacist Groups, reports Tech Transparency Project

General

Aug 10, 2022

Facebook is failing to remove white supremacist groups and is often profiting from searches for them on its platform, according to a new investigation by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) that shows how the social network fosters and benefits from domestic extremism.

TTP found that more than 80 white supremacist groups have a presence on Facebook, including some that Facebook itself has labelled as “dangerous organizations.” What’s more, when our test user searched for the names of white supremacist groups on Facebook, the search results were often monetized with ads—meaning Facebook is profiting off them.

The investigation also found that despite years of warnings that Facebook’s algorithmic tools are pushing users toward extremism, the platform continues to auto-generate Pages for white supremacist organizations and direct users who visit white supremacist Pages to other extremist content. On top of that, Facebook is largely failing in its effort to re-direct users searching for hate terms to websites promoting tolerance.

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CFPB Warns that Digital Marketing Providers Must Comply with Federal Consumer Finance Protections

General

Aug 10, 2022

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interpretive rule laying out when digital marketing providers for financial firms must comply with federal consumer financial protection law. Digital marketers that are involved in the identification or selection of prospective customers or the selection or placement of content to affect consumer behavior are typically service providers for purposes of the law. Digital marketers acting as service providers can be held liable by the CFPB or other law enforcers for committing unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices as well as other consumer financial protection violations.

Today’s interpretive rule explains:

Digital marketers provide material services to financial firms: A material service is one that is significant or important. Digital marketing providers are typically materially involved in the development of content strategy when they identify or select prospective customers or select or place content in order to encourage consumer engagement with advertising. Digital marketers engaged in this type of ad targeting and delivery are not merely providing ad space and time, and they do not qualify under the “time or space” exception.

The CFPB, states, and other consumer protection enforcers can sue digital marketers to stop violations of consumer financial protection law:Service providers are liable for unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices under the Consumer Financial Protection Act. When digital marketers act as service providers, they are liable for consumer protection law violations.

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The Trade Desk Q2 earnings report 377 million dollars in revenue, up 35% YoY

+ 35% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 9, 2022

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Magnite Q2 earnings report 123 million dollars in revenue, up 23% YoY

+ 23% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 9, 2022

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Facebook, Snap, Twitter and YouTube are estimated to lose $18bn in revenues this year from Apple privacy changes, reports FT

General

Aug 9, 2022

Apple last year began forcing app developers to get permission to track users and serve them personalised adverts on iPhones and iPads in changes that have transformed the online advertising sector.

Many small companies that are reliant on online ads to attract new customers told the Financial Times they did not initially notice the full impact of Apple’s restrictions until recent months, when price inflation squeezed consumer demand in major markets worldwide.

The problems facing small businesses have reverberated back across the online advertising giants. Facebook, Snap, Twitter and YouTube are now estimated to lose $18bn in revenues this year from Apple’s change, according to Lotame, the advertising technology company. Facebook’s parent Meta has been particularly badly hit, saying earlier this year that Apple’s changes had cost it at least $10bn.

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AppLovin offers to buy Unity Software in $17.5 billion all-stock deal

M&A

Aug 9, 2022

AppLovin today announced it has submitted a non-binding proposal to the Board of Directors of Unity Software Inc. to combine AppLovin, a leader in mobile marketing and monetization, with Unity, an industry leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D content.

But there’s a catch: Unity would have to terminate its recent deal to merge with ironSource, an AppLovin competitor.

The combination of the two businesses would expect to generate substantial revenue growth, cash flow and operational efficiencies that are well beyond each company’s potential standalone performance. AppLovin estimates this combination will create over $700 million of Adjusted EBITDA from synergies in 2025E, with a minimum of $500 million in 2024E.

AppLovin proposes that Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello become CEO of the combined business and Adam Foroughi become the COO. The Board of Directors of the combined company would be reconstituted so that Unity would appoint the majority of members, consistent with Unity shareholders’ economic stake.

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Walmart Ponders Streaming Deal With Paramount, Disney and Comcast, reports NYT

General

Aug 9, 2022

Walmart has held discussions with major media companies about including streaming entertainment in its membership service, part of an effort to extend its relationship with customers beyond its brick-and-mortar stores.

In recent weeks, executives from Paramount, Disney and Comcast have spoken with Walmart, as the retailer ponders which movies and TV shows would add the most value to its membership bundle, called Walmart+.

A Walmart+ membership, which costs $12.95 per month, currently includes free shipping on orders and discounts on fuel. It also includes a free six-month subscription to the Spotify Premium music service.

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Taboola Q2 earnings report $343 million in revenue, up 4.1% YoY; Adjusted EBITDA down 16% YoY

+ 4% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 9, 2022

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Pubmatic Q2 earnings report $63 million in revenue, up 27% YoY

+ 27% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 8, 2022

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Criteo faces a $65 million fine over alleged GDPR violations, reports Insider

General

Aug 5, 2022

Criteo is facing a proposed $65.4 million fine from the French data protection authority CNIL over alleged GDPR violations. A final decision on the outcome of the investigation and proposed fine will likely fall in mid-2023.

The CNIL's investigation followed a 2018 complaint made by UK-based campaign group Privacy International to a number of European data protection authorities, which alleged Criteo and six other adtech companies didn't have a legal basis for the way they use consumer data.

Privacy International said it hadn't yet seen the CNIL's report, but that it welcomed the authority's decision to take action against Criteo and its proposed financial sanction.

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Integral Ad Science Q2 earnings report 100 million dollars in revenue, up 34% YoY

+ 34% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 4, 2022

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Liveramp Q2 earnings report 142 million dollars in revenue, up 19% YoY

+ 19% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 4, 2022

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Criteo Q2 earnings report 495 million dollars in ad revenue, down 10% YoY

-10% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 3, 2022

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Apple is building a Demand Side Platform (DSP) for its ads platform, reports Digiday

General

Aug 3, 2022

Apple is looking for a senior manager for a DSP in its ads platforms business. Whoever gets the job will be asked to “drive the design of the most privacy-forward, sophisticated demand side platform possible,” per the post. Moreover, the ideal candidate would have experience building a mobile-centric DSP and know-how when it comes to optimizing “mobile campaigns using measurement and attribution.”

A DSP is a core part of an ad tech stack for any company with designs on winning more media dollars. It’s technology, or more specifically software, that lets a marketer advertise with the help of automation. The automation of the process is important because it means marketers can set up campaigns and manage them with relative ease. In turn, they’re likely to spend more.

It remains unclear if the intended DSP is geared toward serving ads solely on Apple’s owned and operated properties, such as the App Store itself or on the millions of iOS apps, or even on third-party properties such as the mobile web.

Apple would not confirm its plans to build a DSP or provide additional context as to how this would fit into the overall company’s strategy for its ad business. But the job posting is a clear signal of intent for the business that has left the impression (at least publicly) that building ad tech is the last thing it wanted to do. This is a company, after all, with a business model geared toward kneecapping advertising rather than embracing it.

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Zeta Global Q2 earnings report $137 million in revenue, up 28% YoY. Adjusted EBITDA up 63%

+ 28% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 3, 2022

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Criteo completes purchase of Iponweb at $250 million, revised down from originally agreed $380 million, reports Insider

M&A

Aug 3, 2022

NASDAQ-listed adtech company Criteo confirmed it has completed its acquisition of fellow adtech firm Iponweb under revised terms in a deal that was under threat of collapsing following Russia's invasion of Ukraine due to Iponweb's large Moscow office.

Under the restructured terms, Criteo acquired Iponweb for $250 million, comprising $180 million in cash and $70 million in treasury shares. An additional $100 million deferred consideration can be unlocked based on performance milestones over the next 18 months.

Iponweb founder Dr Boris Mouzykantskii will become Criteo's chief architect.

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Meta Made Thousands of Dollars From Ads Promoting Dangerous Abortion Reversal Procedure, reports Adweek

General

Aug 3, 2022

Meta has made thousands of dollars on ads promoting abortion reversal, a procedure that supposedly reverses the course of a medical abortion, according to a new report from watchdog Media Matters. A Meta spokesperson at the time noted the ads violated the company’s policies.

Despite this, in October and November 2021, Live Action was able to pay Meta $10,000 for another two ads promoting abortion reversal, which together generated more than 2 million impressions and weren’t pulled down, according to the report.

Since the Supreme Court struck down the federal right to abortion in June, the advertising industry has been under scrutiny for the way it can be used to prevent pregnant people from accessing reproductive care, both for potentially leaking sensitive data and allowing misinformation to flow through the pipes of digital advertising.

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DoubleVerify Q2 earnings report 110 million dollars in ad revenue, up 43% YoY

+ 43% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 3, 2022

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Pinterest Q2 earnings report 666 million dollars in ad revenue, up 9% YoY

+ 9% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Aug 1, 2022

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Roku Q2 earnings report 673 million dollars in ad revenue, up 26% YoY

+ 26% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 28, 2022

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Google announces another delay of third-party cookie deprecation plans until (at least) 2024, reports Insider

General

Jul 27, 2022

Cookie Deprecation

The latest delay is intended to allow more time for advertisers, publishers, and other members of the online ad industry to begin formal testing of the new cookieless technologies proposed in Google's "Privacy Sandbox" initiative, sources familiar with the matter told Insider.

It is the second time the company has pushed back the cookie phaseout. Google first said it would end support for third-party cookies in Chrome "within two years" in 2020 — but last year it extended the timeline to complete the process by late 2023.

Google pledged last year to give UK antitrust watchdog the Competition and Markets Authority oversight of its plans to roll out alternatives to the cookies. Google appointed ING Bank as a "monitoring trustee" to ensure it complies with its commitments to the CMA. The CMA has said it expects to receive its latest quarterly report from Google and ING in July.

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Ebiquity revenue grows 16% as volatile market opens potential digital advertising opportunities, reports UK Investor

General

Jul 25, 2022

Ebiquity's shares rose by 6.7% following a 16% revenue surge to £37 million in HY1 2022, which includes contributions from recent US acquisitions: Media Management LLC and Media Path. The company also registered a 10% rise in organic revenue and expects its operating profit to exceed £4.6 million, a 100% increase from HY1 2021.

CEO Nick Waters expressed satisfaction with their first-half performance, underlining the benefits of the new acquisitions in expanding their North American presence.

Amid macro-economic uncertainties, Waters remains optimistic about Ebiquity's prospects. He highlighted potential growth areas, particularly digital advertising, suggesting marketers might shift their focus there during challenging economic times.

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Study claims advertisers wasted 9.8% of US programmatic budgets on 'Made For Advertising' Inventory, reports Marketing Brew

General

Jul 18, 2022

Made For Advertising

Working alongside brand suitability firm DeepSee and ad-tech consultancy Jounce Media, media-research company Ebiquity found that its clients had spent about $115 million between January 2020 and May 2022 on something the industry calls “made for advertising” inventory, or ”clickbait sites”, that exist for the sole purpose of siphoning ad budgets.

Ebiquity’s US clients spent an average of 9.8% of their budgets on these wasteful advertising investments. The total amount of $115 million accounts for roughly 7.8% of the $1.47 billion that 42 clients spent on programmatic display and video ads across 5,490 unique made-for-advertising domains.

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Netflix appoints Microsoft as technology and sales partner for its ad-supported offering

General

Jul 13, 2022

Netflix COO Greg Peters said:

“In April we announced that we will introduce a new lower priced ad-supported subscription plan for consumers, in addition to our existing ads-free basic, standard, and premium plans. Today we are pleased to announce that we have selected Microsoft as our global advertising technology and sales partner.

“Microsoft has the proven ability to support all our advertising needs as we together build a new ad-supported offering. More importantly, Microsoft offered the flexibility to innovate over time on both the technology and sales side, as well as strong privacy protections for our members.

“It’s very early days and we have much to work through. But our long-term goal is clear: More choice for consumers and a premium, better-than-linear TV brand experience for advertisers. We’re excited to work with Microsoft as we bring this new service to life.”

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Disney expands deal with The Trade Desk for programmatic advertising on their global content and audiences

General

Jul 12, 2022

This expanded deal marks another step toward transforming how advertisers access Disney’s portfolio of premium supply, rooted in secure data collaboration and powered by automation through Disney’s Clean Room technology. By offering clients more flexibility, choice and control across all deal types, Disney is delivering on its commitment to support addressability at scale.

This agreement will enable an integration between Disney’s proprietary Audience Graph and the open-source identity framework, Unified ID 2.0, within a secure environment. As a result, buyers will be able to discover more addressable, biddable inventory across the Disney portfolio, all validated by Disney’s proprietary Audience Graph.

Disney Advertising is implementing this expanded capability with advertisers over the next several months, while setting the stage to support interoperability across all demand partners and platforms.

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Alphabet Q2 2022 earnings report 7,3 billion dollars in ad revenue, Up 5% YoY in its 'YouTube Ads' division

+ 5% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Snap Q2 2022 earnings report 1,1 billion dollars in ad revenue, Up 13% YoY

+ 13% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Microsoft Q2 2022 earnings report 2,9 billion dollars in ad revenue, Up 25% YoY in its 'Search Advertising' division

+ 25% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Microsoft Q2 2022 earnings report 3,7 billion dollars in ad revenue, Up 26% YoY in its 'LinkedIn' division

+ 26% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Twitter Q2 2022 earnings report 1 billion dollars in ad revenue, Up 2% YoY

+ 2% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Meta Q2 2022 earnings report 28,1 billion dollars in ad revenue, Down -1% YoY

-1% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Amazon Q2 2022 earnings report 8,7 billion dollars in ad revenue, Up 18% YoY

+ 18% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Spotify Q2 2022 earnings report 370 million dollars in ad revenue, Up 15% YoY

+ 15% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Alphabet Q2 2022 earnings report 40,6 billion dollars in ad revenue, Up 14% YoY in its 'Search & Other' division

+ 14% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Jul 1, 2022

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced it will support Unified ID 2.0 (UID2) on its platform

General

Jun 22, 2022

User Identifiers

The move will provide AWS customers with a turnkey identity solution that aims to solve for the planned phaseout of third-party cookies. It also bolsters both the scalability and accessibility of UID2.

The news is significant, as the Amazon subsidiary has the world’s largest cloud computing footprint, generating revenues of more than $62 billion last year. It also has a litany of customers, which includes Fortune 100 publishers and advertisers.

Users in the AWS Marketplace will leverage AWS Nitro Enclaves to create privacy-conscious environments for UID2 that aspires to protect highly sensitive data, Amazon says. In other words, it will allow advertisers to pseudonymously match ad opportunities with its own first-party user data, all while keeping consumer privacy in mind and delivering relevant advertising to users.

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Facebook Is Receiving Sensitive Medical Information from Hospital Websites, reports The Markup

General

Jun 16, 2022

A tracking tool installed on many hospitals’ websites has been collecting patients’ sensitive health information—including details about their medical conditions, prescriptions, and doctor’s appointments—and sending it to Facebook.

The Markup tested the websites of Newsweek’s top 100 hospitals in America. On 33 of them they found the tracker, called the Meta Pixel, sending Facebook a packet of data whenever a person clicked a button to schedule a doctor’s appointment. The data is connected to an IP address, creating an intimate receipt of the appointment request for Facebook.

The Markup also found the Meta Pixel installed inside the password-protected patient portals of seven health systems. On five of those systems’ pages, they documented the pixel sending Facebook data about real patients who volunteered to participate in the Pixel Hunt project, a collaboration between The Markup and Mozilla Rally.

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Brands4News Aims to Help Advertisers Fund Journalism in Times of Crisis, reports AdWeek

General

Jun 15, 2022

News Publishing

Ukrainska Pravda, a leading Ukrainian news site, saw page views soar to 900 million in the war's initial month. However, advertising revenue dropped by 90% as international brands shied away from wartime content, fearing negative perceptions.

Brands4News.org, a new initiative, is addressing this by offering brands free templates that highlight their support for "quality journalism". The goal is to project civic responsibility and retain positive consumer sentiment.

Ruben Schreurs, the initiative's founder, points out the "publisher's paradox": increased readership during crises but diminished revenue. He advocates for advertising alongside trusted news, even in crisis, for positive brand impact.

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Marketers Are Curbing Some Advertising to Children, reports WSJ

General

May 31, 2022

Advertising To Children

More marketers are saying they will pare back or wind down completely their advertising to children, as they try to stay in the good graces of parents and regulators. The 20 companies that comprise the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative early in May agreed to advertise only foods or beverages that meet certain nutritional criteria to children under age 13, raising their voluntary threshold by one year.

In part, marketers are responding to the proliferation of digital devices, which give parents and guardians less control over the media and ads their children see than they had in the days of traditional television, said Bob Liodice, chief executive officer of the Association of National Advertisers.

At the same time, regulators including the Federal Trade Commission are taking a hard look at existing rules on children’s advertising in the era of influencer marketing and online targeting by age.

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OpenWeb, Which Aims to Help Publishers Connect With Their Readers, Buys French Ad Firm for $100 Million, reports WSJ

M&A

Apr 12, 2022

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Pinterest Q1 2022 earnings report 575 million dollars in ad revenue, up 18% YoY

+ 18% YoY Opinions

Earnings

Apr 1, 2022

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