CDP Institute

Meanwhile, TransUnion announced a deal to buy Tru Optik, which helps advertisers address 80 million U.S. households on connected TVs and other devices. The deal extends TransUnion’s push into identity and audience products for marketers.

Sticking with connected TVs, Samsung has launched a self-service ad buying platform, Samsung DSP, to help sell ads on its TVs and mobile devices. Just a friendly reminder that even though paid good money for your device, Samsung is still helping itself to your data. Remember: while you’re watching them, they’re watching you back.

The news gods are in a generous mood today, Dear Reader. First we have SAP purchasing multi-channel customer interaction platform (and CDP) Emarsys. The main goal seems to be better B2C personalization, but SAP has been nosing around the CDP market for some time, so this could help in that area too.

Remember how we decided on Monday that individually-targeted out-of-home ads are still science fiction? The line between fantasy and reality just got even thinner with news that Accretive Media can now send connected TV ads to people who saw a particular digital out-of-home ad. They don’t explain how this happens but apparently they’re tracking mobile devices to know who was near each screen.

Speaking of digital out-of-home, digital signage company UPshow has raised a $14 million Series A, bringing their total to $17 million. Their superpower is reprogramming existing in-venue TV screens to deliver ads and content that visitors can interact with through their mobile device.

Now that CDP Institute has a weekly privacy newsletter, I feel less need to publish privacy horror stories. But this Intertrust report is still worth mentioning: 85% of COVID-19 tracking apps leak private data and 71% of all healthcare apps have at least one serious vulnerability. It’s not exactly surprising, but still shouldn’t be accepted without a fuss.