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  • Big Data Co’s Track You on All Your Devices, Experiences

    Learn more about Krux’s data management platform solution ‘marrying human insight and machine learning’. People are unique, from their different characteristics to preferences to behaviors. People engage with brands in infinitely different ways, and they certainly don't fit neatly into standard audience personas. More granular and dynamic audience segments can be discovered and defined through Salesforce DMP machine learning capabilities powered by Einstein. Salesforce DMP Machine-Discovered Segments deliver: Machine-learning algorithms that detect similarity and correlation between users to find hidden patterns and behaviors Prescriptive audience recommendations based on all data sources Unique audience personas that differentiate and augment the value of your first-party data Intelligently targeted and personalized engagement Complete analysis and actionable data to discover, activate, and measure Key Features include: Programmatic Attribution Modeling: Smart insights for smart ad buys and activation across all screens, channels and systems. Turnkey Lookalike Modeling: Audience expansion in which you control the tradeoff between reach and similarity, without reliance on external black box providers. Restricted Data Leasing: Safe, supervised data flow to authorized partners according to times, terms and conditions of your choosing with automated tools for auditing and verification. --- For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2xghY5Y (link is external)

  • Google + other Digital Ad Companies Use Array of Measurement Tools to Track, Analyze and Target Your Cross Devices and Experiences

    Learn more the Audience Center 360, a Google analytic solutions data management platform that helps brands make strong decisions based on a complete understanding of their audience insights, and create relevant and engaging experiences across the entire customer journey. --- For more information visit, http://bit.ly/2xSzX6a (link is external)
  • Blog

    Big Data Turns Your TV into Powerful Digital Spy

    Simulmedia, Oracle Data Cloud Partnership Aims to Bring Data-Driven Ad Targeting to Linear TV Networks

    Targeted TV ad company Simulmedia is partnering with Oracle Data Cloud, a data service company, to target advertisements to consumers based on their in-store purchases. Data-driven advertising is picking up in the linear TV world as cable companies look to cash in on the big data trends that digital platforms base their decisions on already. The data that Oracle Data Cloud is providing via Simulmedia is worth more than $3 trillion in household-level purchase data, according to the announcement (link is external). Simulmedia’s “VAMOS” platform creates data-driven audiences, predicts viewership of the audiences, builds optimized performance-based media plans and reports on media delivery and outcomes. “Bringing Oracle Data Cloud’s purchase-based audiences to national television is a defining moment in the transformation of TV to a data-driven, audience targeted business,” said Dave Morgan, founder and CEO of Simulmedia, in a statement. “By using Simulmedia’s VAMOS platform to precision target Oracle audiences on national TV, brands can align their audience strategies across TV and digital and improve the overall ROI of their advertising spend.” Joe Kyriakoza, vice president-general manager for automotive and TV for Oracle Data Cloud, told MediaPost (link is external)Thursday that this is the first announced partnership in the TV space—though for years the company has already been targeting ads this way in digital. Simulmedia claimed that advertisers will receive an average of between 30% and 100% higher ROI for every campaign. Oracle Data Cloud’s audience numbers quantifying offline transactions are aggregated through data from Oracle’s relationship with Visa Advertising Solutions and DLX Auto audiences, powered by Polk from IHS Markit. Marketers will also be able to deliver ad campaigns to syndicated and custom audience segments from Oracle’s BlueKai Marketplace, as well as onboard their custom CRM and other first-party data. --- For the full article, visit http://bit.ly/2xCxIlD (link is external)
  • Blog

    Consorting With the Frenemy: Ad Tech Players Partner For Shared Identity Matching

    AdWeek article written by James Hercher

    Seven independent ad tech companies debuted a programmatic consortium on Thursday that pools their supply- and demand-side cookie IDs into one shared identity asset. The consortium is helmed by AppNexus, MediaMath and LiveRamp, which provides the data matching. Other launch partners include Index Exchange, Rocket Fuel, LiveIntent and OpenX. And it’s a shot across the bow of Facebook and Google, which suck in a majority of digital ad dollars. “The big giants have had an advantage over the open internet in that they have their own deterministic identities for users that allows more precise targeting and cross-device matching,” said AppNexus product VP Patrick McCarthy. Ad tech platforms like AppNexus, Index Exchange and OpenX have the combined online reach marketers want, McCarthy said, but an advertiser must match its data against each platform independently and use LiveRamp to create one-to-one matches. “A universal cookie ID eliminates all the user syncing that goes on between platforms and the lower match rate that necessarily goes with it,” he said. While Google and Facebook have users who contribute deterministic data, the newly formed ad tech consortium can apply first-party data from advertisers and logged-in data from publishers. Marketers and supply sources who are a part of the consortium will access for free the shared cookie pool. LiveRamp’s cross-device graph IdentityLink can be extended to the campaigns, but LiveRamp is still considering commercial terms for ad buyers who want to add a cross-device matching component, company CMO Jeff Smith told AdExchanger. The lack of a unique identifier to date has been one of the biggest factors in fueling concerns around transparency, fairness and control in the digital advertising ecosystem For now, though, any marketer who wants to take advantage of the consortium’s cross-device offering must be a LiveRamp IdentityLink customer. Smith is acutely aware that LiveRamp gains a new business funnel, noting that onboarding potential consortium partners is “definitely is a benefit for us.” “And hopefully the broader benefit is if everyone standardizes around a common identity, the value and efficiency of their marketing will go up,” he added. While the DSPs and SSPs in the consortium may not view it as a new business play, “there certainly will be benefits” that could lead to budget and supply-source consolidation, said MediaMath product VP Philipp Tsipman. For instance, a European video supplier working with MediaMath on a campaign could match its viewers one-to-one with MediaMath’s cookie pool. If that relationship were to occur through the consortium, the match rates would be higher and the profiles would be more robust, since suppliers across the web are contributing data as well. AppNexus’s McCarthy said the system doesn’t cut off buyers from suppliers that don’t use the consortium, but “they will get better matching and better results, so it could naturally funnel more budgets to suppliers that participate.” The market needs “a unique identifier that is neutral,” said OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan in a statement about joining the consortium. “The lack of a unique identifier to date has been one of the biggest factors in fueling concerns around transparency, fairness and control in the digital advertising ecosystem.” --- For the full article, please visit http://bit.ly/2fLZtAB (link is external)
  • Blog

    Political Scholars, NGOs Call on Facebook, Digital Industry to Support Rules for Political Campaigns

    Released on September 22, 2017 at a political microtargeting conference held in Amsterdam, in response to the recent announcement by Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg on changes to how they conduct political ad campaigns. Dear Mark, Your statements on Facebook’s new policies for political advertising were issued as we started a global symposium on micro-targeting in Amsterdam (https://www.ivir.nl/amsterdam-symposium-on-political-micro-targeting/ (link is external)). We are a group of leading international academic experts and civil society representatives from the fields of law, communication, political science and economics who are conducting research on political targeting. Fairness, equality and democratic oversight are key in democratic societies. We appreciate the initiative you have taken and strongly encourage further dialogue and action. Moving this forward we strongly believe that the principles of transparency and disclosure are essential. Facebook should share publicly the full range of paid political contents, disclose the sponsoring actors, and identify the categories of target audiences. This should be done globally as this is an issue that affects elections worldwide. We encourage you and other platforms and actors to join this dialogue to contribute principles for transparency and disclosure. Transparency is a first step in the right direction. Digital political advertising operates in a dynamic tension between data and humans, commerce and politics, power and participation. Some of these tensions can be resolved by transparency, others not. The way forward is to engage with governments, regulators, election monitoring bodies, civil society and academics to develop public policies and guidelines for ensuring fairness, equality, and democratic oversight in digital political campaigns. Can we count on you? Natali Helberger Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam Claes de Vreese Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam Balazs Bodo Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam Mauricio Moura George Washington University Max von Grafenstein Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Berlin Jessica Schmeiss Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society Sabrina Sassi Universite Laval Tom Dobber Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam Jeff Chester Center for Digital Democracy, Washington, DC Kathryn Montgomery American University, Washington, DC André Haller Institut für Kommmunikationswissenschaft, Universität Bamberg Damian Tambini Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science Simon Krischinski Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mains Daniel Kreiss School of Media and Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    Jeff Chester

  • Google, Facebook, Verizon, Comcast, Charter, AT&T and Global Brands and Advertisers Kill Broadband Privacy for California—for Now

    Digital marketing companies, especially Facebook (link is external) and Google, allied with super-size broadband ISPs (AT&T, Comcast, etc.), defeated (link is external) a bill that would have given Californians the right to have a say in how their digital information can be used. The bill primarily required (link is external) opt-in consent (an informed, informative okay) before our data could be used to help advertisers target us via a home or mobile Internet connection. Google, Facebook, AT&T, Comcast and their partners don’t want individuals to be able to decide for themselves whether they want to be part of these companies’ commercial surveillance system. Working both independently and collectively, the digital marketing businesses can now seamlessly (link is external) gather, analyze and use all our information—whether we are on a mobile device a PC or even watching TV. Our mobile phones and apps send them details of where we go and what we do. All of our “profile” information is collected into a single record, which often contains an ever-growing (link is external) array of other data—about our finances, health, what our kids do, what we view online, where we shop and for what, our race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and more. Google and Facebook use this data to generate massive revenues from advertisers, marketers and political campaigns. AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon have long had “Google envy,” believing that their monopolistic control over the broadband connections most Americans rely on should also shower them with even more financial rewards. That’s why phone and cable companies have scooped (link is external) up digital ad companies, such as Yahoo and AOL. Their vision for the future is to profit significantly by selling us to advertisers when we use our digital devices to stream video, listen to music, play games, etc. The California bill was based on the safeguards that had been enacted by the FCC at the end of the Obama administration, but that President Trump eliminated (link is external) earlier this year and. Google, Facebook and the others knew that if California enacted such consumer safeguards, it would set a powerful precedent. That’s why they engaged in a deceptive (link is external) ad campaign, used their political donations (link is external) for clout with lawmakers, and sent lobbyists to the state to tell tall tales of how Americans have their privacy protected by the FTC. A terrific coalition (link is external) of privacy, consumer, education, children’s advocacy, civil rights and civil liberties group fought for the California bill. We are proud that CDD played a modest role. We will all be back, stronger than ever, when the California state legislature reconvenes next year. But the lesson here is a valuable one and joins the now-almost-daily examples where Google (link is external), Facebook (link is external) and the others misuse their power. The forces of advertising and marketing, now fueled with the ever-growing capabilities of digital applications, undermine the ability of America’s communication and information gatekeepers to effectively serve the public interest. It’s a story that has been repeated throughout the 20th century with the mediums of radio, broadcast television and cable. It’s also always been true of the Internet companies. Protecting our privacy, by stopping these companies from so easily grabbing and monetizing our data, is one way we need to address the problem. The Europeans are about to do precisely (link is external) that—and the U.S. needs to do the same. That’s a very important beginning for what must be a new national agenda protecting the digital rights of all Americans.
  • Blog

    Without Broadband Privacy, Californians Losing Key Consumer Protection Rights—Example 1

    Integrated into their end-to-end platform (link is external), Smartplay provides a real-time, one-to-one connection (link is external) to viewer’s device, enabling them to optimize monetization opportunities. Smartplay’s server-side ad insertion technology (link is external) and industry-standard ad-decisioning system are used to deliver personalized ad experiences across live, linear and on-demand programming. By enforcing advertising business rules according to their monetization strategy, Smartplay enables smarter advertising to help customers get the most value out of their online content. --- For more information, please view the attached PDF and visit http://bit.ly/2w385c7 (link is external).
  • Blog

    Big Data, Digital Marketing and the Equifax Data Breach

    “Marketers. Ready, aim, engage! It is easier than ever to hit the right marketing targets,” explains Equifax (link is external) about its far-reaching data capabilities that capture, analyze, and sell our information. Equifax’s admission last week about its loss of personal information on 143 million Americans—including Social Security and drivers license numbers—is also a wake-up call about the dramatic loss of our privacy in the digital era. Most people think of Equifax as one of the “Big 3” credit-reporting agencies that provide information on our credit worthiness. But Equifax also profits from compiling and selling our data profile to financial services, retail, auto, telecommunications, and other industries for online targeting. As the company itself explains, “Equifax has grown from a consumer credit company into a leading global provider of insights.” It has built a major business offering (link is external) “audience profiling, targeting and measurement tools” that reflect data practices that undermine our privacy and can threaten the interests of consumers. As it explains (link is external) in its “Equifax for Marketing? Absolutely” document, “the advent of Big Data presents nearly limitless potential to help identify the most profitable customers and prospects…. Our data-driven marketing solutions help you synthesize consumer data for a holistic, 360-degree customer view.” Equifax pulls together and “enriches data from disparate sources” so others can have an “enhanced view” of who we are and what we do. Unfortunately, that “enhanced view” means trampling on what should be our right to control who has access and can use our information. We shouldn’t be focused only on the loss of our information from a data breach—but also on how we can better address this issue at its core—by stopping the massive and stealth ways our data are being gathered and used in the first place. Just last month (link is external), Equifax further consolidated (link is external) its “data assets” to create what it calls its “Data-Driven Marketing” suite (DDM). It now provides “a single point of access to all of its data” in order to make using it more convenient for marketers. Equifax’s current business practices reflect how our personal data is traded, shared, and sold today. An array of partners (link is external) collaborate to share information on an individual or a group to be targeted. Data from different sources are gathered, analyzed to identify patterns and opportunities; we are segmented and scored, given an invisible label that describes our financial status and behavior, and that information is then fed into superfast computers that deliver pitches and offers to us via mobile phones, PCs, and connected TVs. In its “Data-driven Marketing Solutions” paper (link is external) on financial services, Equifax touts its ability to directly measure “over $15 trillion of U.S. consumer investable assets…and credit data for over 220 million consumers in the U.S.” Equifax says that it can take that data to help clients target individuals “across channels: email, display, mobile, addressable TV, social, direct mail, point-of-sale, [and] call center.” This is what’s known as “omnichannel” marketing, and involves following us wherever we go online, and, via our mobile phone and apps, into stores and other physical locations as well. For example, Equifax’s IXI (link is external) Services division enables marketers to “differentiate consumer households and neighborhoods, based on wealth, income, spending capacity, share-of-wallet and share of market.” One of its products—AudienceIntel (link is external)—“helps you understand the financial profile of your site visitors…[using] intuitive targeting segments based on our proprietary measures of households’ financial capacity, propensities, preferences, and behavior.” Among IXI’s “digital targeting segments (link is external)” are those who may need a “sub-prime credit card,” a “revolver” (someone with a high balance and will have to accrue interest charges), a “likely student loan target,” and “active debit card users.” Equifax’s IXI promises that it can help guarantee that its clients’ ads have been viewed by their “desired target audience” and whether a sale or some other response was completed—“online or offline.” Unlike Experian and Acxiom, Equifax’s IXI “receives data directly from financial institutions,” which it can segment in a more granular way, according (link is external) to trade reports. Equifax’s “TokenIntel (link is external)” provides retailers with additional insights into our lives by linking point-of-sale and online transaction data with our use of credit cards. This includes geo-location information as well. Although Equifax claims its processes are privacy friendly, the technology it uses enables it to know each consumer and “household, allowing for a clearer picture of a household’s likely value to your brand.” “Communicate with shoppers like you know them…Because You Do!” Equifax explains, urging potential clients to work with it so that “your millions of transaction data points become the foundation” of more profiling and targeting of individuals. Equifax has allied itself with other leading digital data companies that use cutting-edge ad technologies that help target us in milliseconds. They are now working (link is external) with Adobe, Lotame, Salesforce’s Krux, Neustar, MediaMath, and Acxiom’s LiveRamp (link is external), for example (as well as working with music site Pandora (link is external)). In other words, Equifax is helping other data targeting companies gain access to our information—an example of the out-of-control data system unleashed today. Because the U.S. doesn’t have any federal consumer privacy law—rules that the digital data and ad industries are violently opposed to—there’s nothing stopping them from collecting and using even more of our information. The breaches that are occurring begin the very first time a company takes our data, without any legal limits on what that company can do with such information. ---
    Jeff Chester
  • Blog

    Equifax Unveils Data-driven Marketing Capabilities to Help Brands Drive Maximum Customer Value

    Equifax Inc., a global information solutions provider, today unveiled its next-generation Data-driven Marketing capabilities, designed to help brands conquer the challenges preventing them from realizing their data-driven marketing goals. As marketers across all industries become increasingly reliant on "big data" to help them identify the most profitable customers and prospects and create great experiences, it's clear that marketers need additional help to harness the promise of data-driven marketing. A majority -- 96% -- of marketers report their organizations are attempting to make more central use of customer data, but only 29% are seeing results, according to the IAB's "The Data-Centric Organization (link is external)" whitepaper from September, 2016. Data-driven marketing integrates and enhances the marketing services that Equifax provides. These include credit marketing, IXI Services' wealth-based marketing insights, and digital marketing. This unification enables Equifax to more holistically solve the key challenges that marketing executives face. Leveraging our track record as a trusted data steward and widely-recognized strengths in household economic data, identity and data linking, analytics and technology, Equifax helps brands: Create a single, actionable customer view across data silos and channels; Turn data into an understanding of customer needs and growth opportunities; Engage customers consistently across channels; and Measure results to continuously improve performance and marketing ROI --- For the full article, visit http://bit.ly/2wnuro8 (link is external)
  • Blog

    Phone and Cable ISPs Assemble a Big Data Commercial Surveillance Apparatus Aimed at Californians: Use of “hyperlocal” data targeting practices bring greater privacy threats to neighborhoods and communities.

    Key control of multiple devices, including TV. ISPs have positioned themselves to expand their consumer data collection across all the devices/platforms they operate. This includes broadband connections (including streaming media), mobile devices, PCs, and also TV. Unlike Google and Facebook, the cable and telephone ISPs largely control the TV set. Comcast has enabled its NBC division to use its set-top (link is external) box data for targeting, for example. Phone and cable companies work with leading data brokers and data marketing “clouds” in order to develop granular and actionable profiles of individuals. This gives ISPs robust understanding of the actions and behaviors of consumers, including financial, health, ethnic, racial, shopping, and even politically related data—all of which is used for personalized targeted marketing. Examples include Comcast (link is external) and Verizon working with Acxiom, among others; Comcast (link is external) and Verizon working with real-time data targeting company MediaMath; Verizon and Comcast (link is external) working with Oracle’s (link is external) marketing cloud division; and Experian (link is external) providing data to Verizon/AOL and AT&T (link is external). ISPs are Identifying and targeting a single consumer across all the devices that person uses—through “cross device identification.” Verizon (which operates both AOL and Yahoo) works with Acxiom’s LiveRamp division. LiveRamp specializes in helping clients fuse together data that allows specific individuals to be identified (link is external) on all their devices, through LiveRamp’s “IdentityLink” LiveRamp matches “PII-based data—like emails, postal addresses, and phone numbers—with…cookies and device IDs….” The company maintains “consistent recognition on 98% of U.S. adults and nearly 100% of U.S. households.” Verizon’s Precision Insights Program is listed as a LiveRamp partner (“the two companies are leveraging the PrecisionID” to give advertisers the ability to run “list-matching” campaigns in mobile, and serve mobile ads to an already built CRM list). AT&T also has a connection with LiveRamp, via its alliance (link is external) for app-based data targeting with Opera Mediaworks. The list of LiveRamp’s data partners is far-reaching, suggesting that Verizon, for example, can acquire extensive data elements on individuals. AT&T has also worked with cross-device targeting specialist Tapad. (link is external) Verizon works with another cross-device company—Drawbridge (link is external)—which also has multiple data-broker partnerships. Phone and cable companies are using set-top box data to also target consumers on their other devices. For example, AT&T recently boasted, “we are now targeting that same consumer across TV and mobile.” ISPs are expanding their use of consumer geolocation data for commercial tracking and ad targeting, creating new privacy threats to neighborhoods and communities. For example, leading geo-tracking company Factual (link is external) is a partner (link is external) with Verizon’s AOL. AT&T (link is external) and Verizon (link is external) also work with geotargeter PlaceIQ. ISPs have been on a data-targeting spending spree to acquire companies that help them target across devices and applications. AT&T has partnered with ad- (and now also data-) giant WPP to own (link is external) a company that helps deliver digital TV and other interactive ads across devices. They are using “verified subscriber identities” to deliver addressable TV and mobile ads, including through apps. Verizon’s acquisition of Yahoo (including Yahoo Finance and Yahoo Mail) gave it control of over 600 million mobile monthly users. Yahoo mail has “225 million logged-in users,” for example, lending valuable scale to AOL’s (link is external) ad-platform business. “Verizon’s subscriber data coupled with Yahoo content and email addresses enables more precise ad targeting,” explained (link is external) one leading publication. ISPs are using their data clout to deliver insight-based targeting. Verizon, for example, promises that it “allows advertisers to pinpoint very specific targets by households." ---
  • Blog

    Comcast, Cox, Charter Sell Your Data to Political Groups

    NCC is owned by cable industry leaders Comcast, Cox and Spectrum, and represents virtually every other multi-channel programming distributor in the US.

    What connects cable, online and on demand viewers? NCC Digital Video. NCC’s approach to advertising reaches premium voter audiences across all screens. Only NCC has the unrivaled ability to target authenticated subscribers in a variety of ways across premium cable content and websites. And with our targeting technology, NCC can continue to target this subscriber as well as additional specific audiences throughout the web. NCC A+ Political Advertising gathers first party voter data from all 50 states and offers list matching Premium in-stream video ads run across all screens to an engaged, authenticated audience Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI) facilitates ad insertion into premium cable programming in OnDemand viewing Premium High Impact Home Page and Sign-In page take overs give maximum brand exposure and impact NCC Political Media is proud of our partnerships with the most reputable research and data sources on US voters. Access to this intelligence allows us to provide you with superior intelligence on how to effectively reach the right voters in your preferred markets, on the best cable networks and online platforms. --- For more information, visit NCCMedia.com
  • Blog

    Broadband Co’s Spy on Your TV Viewing and Sell to Political Groups—Part III

    Deep Root Analytics, a leading media & audience analytics company that creates data platforms for audience targeting and ad monitoring, announced today that it has expanded the number of audiences available with D2 Media Sales to enable political, corporate & advocacy advertisers to target Dish and DIRECTV households using proprietary audience segments. Deep Root Analytics has created 35 new proprietary audience segments based on their affinity scores on political & policy issues and interest in corporate responsibility efforts. These new audiences represent an increase in the Deep Root Analytics footprint to reach Dish & DIRECTV households above their initial announcement (link is external) in 2016 and brings its overall addressable audience offering to more than 60 unique audience segments. As such, Deep Root Analytics has pre-matched these segments to D2’s advertising platform, providing addressable TV advertising to nearly 23 million DIRECTV and DISH satellite households. “In 2017, advocacy and brand advertisers are navigating a tricky and fractured media landscape. They are especially keen to identify and efficiently reach audiences based on what they value and to drive their agenda and manage their brand reputations,” noted Deep Root Analytics CEO Brent McGoldrick. “At Deep Root Analytics, we are focused on helping them make their paid media as data-driven as possible. So, we are thrilled to work with D2 Media Sales and access their best-in-class addressable TV platform to enable our clients to directly communicate with nearly 23 million DIRECTV & DISH customers.” The 35 new proprietary segments created by Deep Root Analytics and made available for addressable advertising via D2 Media Sales include: --- For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2ep1l0U (link is external)
  • Blog

    Broadband Co’s Spy on Your TV Viewing and sell to Political Groups—Part II

    Political data firms on both sides of the aisle have bolstered their addressable TV capabilities. Today, Democratic data firm TargetSmart and Republican data outfit Data Trust each announced new partnerships with TV data providers. The outcome should be even more TV spots, especially from congressional campaigns, targeted to households of key voter segments than ever before. Data Trust, the data firm that manages a national voter file for Republicans and right-leaning groups, has partnered with FourthWall Media to match FourthWall's cable viewership data to Data Trust's voter data. The result will be a feed of TV viewer data updated daily and matched against Data Trust's voting history and demographic data. It was a year ago at the Democratic National Committee's summer meeting in Minneapolis when Democratic data firm TargetSmart Communications unveiled the addressable TV and digital ad targeting capabilities it developed with data services firm Experian. Today, TargetSmart expanded its TV data offerings through a partnership with Tru Optik, which provides media consumption data for digital media and connected TV devices such as Roku, Xbox, and smart TVs. The company also has TV data deals with Rentrak and D2 Media Sales, which is a partnership between DISH and DirecTV/AT&T. "We're trying to get as many partnerships out there as possible," said Bill Russell, director of digital partnerships at TargetSmart. These sorts of voter and TV data deals are bringing the targeting capabilities of online advertising to TV ad buys, which historically have resulted in some wasted spending for political campaigns that would do better to target ads to desired voter groups rather than those less likely to support their candidates. The new approaches have grown in popularity following the 2012 election, when President Obama's re-election campaign famously employed innovative data-crunching methods for buying TV ads aimed at voters through programming rarely purchased by political advertisers. By partnering with more and more TV data and media firms, political data companies are bringing what was once accessible only to large statewide or national campaigns to smaller, down-ballot candidates. Through such relationships, political advertisers can reach pre-defined voter segments, such as likely Democratic or Republican voters, or custom groups of voters. --- For the full article, visit http://bit.ly/2wDaz4s (link is external)
  • Blog

    Broadband Co’s Spy on Your TV Viewing and sell to Political Groups

    FourthWall Media and Data Trust announced a partnership that will create a unique feed utilizing Data Trust’s comprehensive data warehouse. Data Trust will connect FourthWall’s census-level television viewership data to its GOP dataset of over 190 million American voters from all 50 states. The integrated solution will help allied analytics companies build media and television-centric targeting solutions for their customers. “Data Trust is committed to compiling and providing access to the foundational data right-of-center political and advocacy organizations need to persuade voters and win this November,” said John DeStefano, president of Data Trust. “Combining FourthWall’s television viewership data with the historical data only Data Trust offers will help our customers access more complete datasets than anyone else.” Data Trust will use FourthWall’s anonymous household matching tool to sync with Data Trust’s voter file and create a unique feed of viewership information updated daily. Data Trust’s depth allows clients to append other information to those matched households, such as demographics, voting history and the like. As analytics firms and media buyers become more sophisticated, the ability to look at the TV viewing behavior of certain groups, such as first time Hispanic voters, becomes more and more valuable in the battle for votes and persuasion. --- For the full article, visit http://bit.ly/2wDaz4s (link is external)
  • Press Release

    Advocates Call on FCC to Protect Programming and Advertising Safeguards for Children's TV

    Commission Must Reject TV Industry Proposal to Undermine Public Interest Obligations

    WASHINGTON, D.C. – Advocates called today on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reject an effort by major media companies to eliminate or weaken important rules for children’s television. The National Association of Broadcasters, Internet and Television Association (NCTA), CBS, Disney, Fox, Univision, and others have asked the FCC to significantly reduce advertising limits on children’s programming. Industry commenters also urged the FCC to reconsider rules that require broadcasters to provide quality educational programming as part of their obligation to serve the public interest. In comments filed today, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy called on the FCC to reject industry proposals to repeal or modify the current rules. “The Trump Administration and the FCC should stand up for the rights of children and parents and reject this crass campaign by the broadcast lobby,” said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. “The broadcast industry receives billions of dollars in benefits from its free use of public resources, including invaluable rights to the airwaves. It is unconscionable that TV stations and networks want to kill off one of their few remaining obligations to the public.” In April, the FCC issued a public notice on its “Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative,” asking for suggestions about which of the FCC’s media-related rules should be modified or repealed. Media companies replied with a deregulation wish list that would allow them to use kids’ television programming to market directly to children. The major networks urged the FCC to relax its rules prohibiting product integration and product placement on kids’ shows, arguing that YouTube and other child-directed online services are not subject to those restrictions. Advocates responded by pointing out that internet and mobile providers are simply ignoring longstanding children’s media principles, which are based on child development, and that a lack of online regulation is not a good reason for the FCC to eliminate important safeguards for the millions of children who watch traditional TV. “It is extremely disappointing that broadcasters want to join the race to the bottom when it comes to exploiting children’s developmental vulnerabilities for profit,” said Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “Media companies want to gut longstanding safeguards because young people an incredibly lucrative market for advertisers. But research demonstrates that children are particularly vulnerable to marketing and benefit from rules that require ad limits and separation of programming and commercial content.” Advocates also oppose a request by the Internet and Television Association to repeal an FCC rule known as the “website display rule.” The FCC adopted this rule in 2004 to prohibit advertisers from engaging in “host-selling” to children, which the transition to digital broadcasting could otherwise allow. Angela J. Campbell, director of the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown and counsel to some of the advocates, called the effort to repeal this rule disingenuous. “The media companies say the website display rule is unnecessary because television has rarely been used to interact and target advertising to children,” she said. “But at the same time, these companies engaging in a practice known as ‘programmatic marketing,’ which offers advertisers the ability to target ads to specific viewers of cable and broadcast television programming.” In addition, advocates oppose efforts by media companies to be relieved of their public interest obligation to provide educational programming for children, and to produce public reports to help the FCC determine whether that programming meets the obligations laid out in the Children’s Television Act. “The television industry made a commitment to serve the nation’s children by providing quality educational programs,” explained Professor Kathryn Montgomery of American University, who led the effort to strengthen the FCC’s rules on the Children’s Television Act. “However, broadcasters failed to live up to these minimal obligations and the FCC has been irresponsible in allowing the industry to evade one of its only remaining public interest requirements. Rather than considering elimination of these rules, the FCC (and Congress) should conduct an investigation into TV programming and advertising practices directed at children.” ---- The comments can be read via the attached PDF file below.
  • Blog

    Google Expanded Influencer Marketing: Industry Stealth Apparatus Requires Scrutiny

    FameBit is an online marketplace that connects YouTubers with brands that are interested in advertising their products and services. This provides creators an opportunity to earn money with their content by partnering with brands that are relevant to their audience. Learn about Famebit, the Self-Service Influencer Marketing Platform. For more information, visit https://famebit.com/brands (link is external)
  • Press Release

    CDD Tells EU to End “Privacy Shield” deal with U.S., FTC cannot protect U.S. consumer privacy, let alone EU citizens

    Review finds EU Citizens data at risk; lack of review by Commerce department and FTC.

    The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), a leading US NGO specializing in consumer data protection issues in the digital marketplace, is pleased to respond to the request that we provide information applicable to first annual review of the EUUS Privacy Shield. CDD has been assessing the Privacy Shield since it came into force in 2016, in part as a result of its work coordinating the activities from the US side of the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) working group on the Information Society. EU citizens and consumers who deal with companies enrolled in the Privacy Shield program confront a serious erosion of their data protection and privacy rights. The rights of EU citizens under the Privacy Shield program are not equivalent to how they would be protected by EU law. We urge the Commission and EU Data Protection Authorities to suspend the Privacy Shield in light of its lack of any policies, rules, or enforcement that would provide meaningful adequacy or equivalency. The Commission should insist that U.S. companies targeting EU citizens or consumers must operate under the forthcoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) framework. For this submission, we reviewed the activities of several major U.S. companies enrolled in the Privacy Shield program, examining their submissions on the U.S. Commerce Department website (including descriptions of their activities, the link to and content of their privacy policy statements). We compared these statements to the actual data collection and use-related activities conducted by the companies, including their own descriptions of how they operationalize their business goals. We supplemented this analysis with the information that CDD extensively gathers on the commercial digital marketplace, such as automated “programmatic” decision making and other contemporary consumer-directed applications. --- For the full PDF of the letter, see attachment in link below.
  • Press Release

    Public Knowledge Joins Consumer Federation of America, Center for Digital Democracy and more in Complaint Urging FTC to Protect Consumer Privacy

    Public Knowledge joined by the Consumer Federation of America, the Center For Digital Democracy, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of California, and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse writes a letter urging the Federal Trade Commission Acting Chairman, Maureen Ohlhausen, to protect consumer privacy. The letter is asking the FTC Chairwoman to publicly and expeditiously resolve a pending complaint concerning cable TV and satellite TV privacy. --- June 12, 2017 Maureen Ohlhausen Acting Chairman Federal Trade Commission 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20580 Dear Acting Chairman Ohlhausen: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has long protected consumer privacy, in tandem with other agencies, and you recently reiterated your dedication to protecting consumer privacy in the digital age through FTC enforcement. We therefore urge the FTC to quickly resolve the complaint filed one year ago by a coalition of consumer advocates. The complaint provides evidence that the nation’s cable and satellite providers have and continue to deceive consumers about their privacy practices by failing to provide adequate notice, in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act. Since the complaint was filed, leading Internet Service Providers, cable and telephone companies have significantly expanded their ability to gather, analyze and make actionable data that is used to target subscribers, their families, and other consumers. --- See the link below for the full PDF of the complaint.
  • Blog

    No kidding: Facebook and Alphabet are Online Advertising Companies Above All

    Chart: Here’s How 5 Tech Giants Make Their Billions Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist (link is external) For the full article visit, http://www.visualcapitalist.com/chart-5-tech-giants-make-billions/ (link is external)
  • Press Release

    CDD and CCFC Ask FTC to Suspend TRUSTe COPPA role and open up investigation

    The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), by their attorneys, the Institute for Public Representation, respond to the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC or the Commission) request for comment on proposed changes to TRUSTe’s COPPA Safe Harbor program. TRUSTe has sought approval of changes to its COPPA Safe Harbor program that it states are necessary to comply with an Assurance of Discontinuance it recently entered into with the New York Attorney General’s Office (NYAG). While the proposed changes themselves do not appear objectionable, the facts leading up to this proposal strongly suggest that TRUSTe has violated its 2015 Consent Decree with the FTC by misrepresenting its practices for assessing operators of child-directed online services (Operators). CDD and CCFC ask the FTC to conduct an investigation of TRUSTe to determine if it has in fact violated the Consent Decree, and if so, to take all available enforcement action against TRUSTe. Further, to protect the privacy of children pending the outcome of the investigation, they ask the FTC to suspend TRUSTe’s COPPA Safe Harbor program. (Link to the full report attached below.)