Industry Coverage
News
A continuously updated record of the customer data ecosystem — covering vendor announcements, funding and acquisitions, product launches, privacy and regulatory developments, and independent analysis. The CDP Institute curates coverage across the whole industry, not only its own programs.
Get these breaking news updates in your inbox! Subscribe
Disney and OpenAI Reach Licensing Agreement for Sora Disney has agreed to license more than 200 characters, costumes, and environments (but not voices or talent likenesses) to OpenAI for Sora, its gen AI video platform. This is highly unusual for Disney, which generally sues AI models for… Stripe Launches Agentic Commerce Suite to Give Businesses Multiple AI Tools Speaking of AI (as per usual), Stripe has launched the Agentic Commerce Suite, which provides multiple AI agents for businesses. The agents can make products discoverable in agentic channels, help with checkout, and detect fraud. It's… Pinterest Acquires CTV Ad Platform tvScientific Pinterest has agreed to acquire CTV (connected TV) performance advertising platform tvScientific for an undisclosed amount. This is a first foray into CTV for Pinterest, which has been leaning into marketing tools like shoppable ads in… Shopify Launches Product Network to Show Items Across Merchants Shopify has launched the Shopify Product Network, which shows items across participating merchants, even if the items aren't in the store being browsed. While the listings aren't ads, the network is similar to ad products like Google… DoubleVerify Expands Impression-Level Insights to TikTok Brand safety platform DoubleVerify is expanding its DV Authentic Attention product to TikTok, giving users direct impression-level signals. This means a greater understanding of engagement and campaign performance. DoubleVerify brought… Uber Advertising Announces Uber Intelligence Powered by LiveRamp Uber Advertising has announced the Uber Intelligence platform, powered by LiveRamp. Like a data clean room, it allows advertisers to combine their customer data with Uber's consented and pseudonymized data in a privacy-safe setting. It… Linux Foundation Creates Agentic AI Foundation Based on MCP and Other Models The Linux Foundation, which promotes open-source projects including the Linux operating system, has announced the creation of the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), a vendor-neutral basis for AI systems. The three starting projects are… EU Investigates Google's Use of Online Content to Train Gemini The European Commission is investigating if Google is unfairly using content from YouTube to train Gemini AI. Specifically, the investigation seeks to know if Google has been "granting itself privileged access to" content uploaded to… India Proposes Mandatory Royalty System for Training AI While the EU is looking at AI through a lens of transparency and fair use, India has proposed a very different framework. It would give AI companies a "mandatory blanket license" to access all copyrighted works to train their models, in… IBM Acquires Data Movement Platform Confluent for $11 Billion IBM has agreed to acquire data movement platform Confluent for $11 billion in cash. Confluent manages data streams in real time, which is very important for AI. IBM plans to use Confluent to "complement" its existing AI and hybrid cloud… Instacart Comes to ChatGPT It's finally happened: OpenAI says Instacart has become "the first app to offer a checkout experience directly within ChatGPT," meaning users can buy their groceries without leaving their conversations about them. Users have to connect and… Scowtt Raises $12 Million Series A for AI-Powered Ad Platform Let's look beyond Big Tech for a moment. Scowtt uses companies' first-party CRM data to build predictive AI models in real time. It just raised a $12 million Series A. ICEBlock sues US government The developer of the ICEBlock app is suing the Trump administration claiming it violated the First Amendment by coercing Apple to remove the immigration tracker from the app store. Petco admits data breach While the extent has yet to be disclosed, Petco is notifying select customers in California, Massachusetts, and Montana whose data, including Social Security numbers, driver’s license data, and credit card information it determined was… IT'S THE LAW (12/09/2025) The EU Court of Justice established a new standard ruling that online marketplaces, including dating apps, can no longer claim to be neutral entities and are responsible for protecting against leaks of user-posted content and for… Children's Privacy: Hawaii joins other states suing TikTok for harms against kids Hawaii and more than a dozen states, including New York, California and Nevada, have now charged TikTok with harming young users’ mental health via false advertising and practices that can make the platform addictive. In Brief: Switzerland advised citizens to boycott cloud services from big tech companies, including Microsoft, Amazon & Google, because they lack end-to-end encryption Concern is due to the US Cloud Act, which allows US authorities to request sensitive personal data regardless of where it’s stored. In Brief: India backpedals on order that would have mandated smartphone companies to install a permanent, state-sponsored security app on every citizen's phone Meta Strikes AI Deals with Multiple News Publishers Meta has announced agreements with USA Today, People Inc., and other news publishers to pay for access to their content and link to their articles in its AI chatbot. It's a sharp contrast to Perplexity, which the Chicago Tribune and New… European Commission Fines X €120 Million in First Non-Compliance Decision Under Digital Services Act The European Commission has fined X €120 million (about $140 million) for breaching the Digital Services Act (DSA). A two-year investigation found fault with the blue checkmark for paid "verified accounts," the lack of independent access… Nielsen's Gracenote Launches CTV Ad Platform with Program-Level Targeting For generations, Nielsen has been famous for its information on TV watching. So it makes sense that Gracenote, its content data business unit, is focusing on program-level targeting with the newly-launched Gracenote Content Connect… Take Our Survey, Please The CDP Institute is still eagerly collecting responses to our annual Member Survey. If our requests haven't reached you, or if you haven't had a few spare minutes, please click here to share your experience. We'll appreciate it, you'll… Data Quality is Top AI Implementation Challenge: Chiefmartec/MartechTribe The Martech for 2026 report from Scott Brinker of Chiefmartec and Frans Riemersma of MartechTribe contains many interesting insights about the state of AI in martech. The good news for the CDP industry is that data quality is the top AI… Brevo Raises €500 Million Private Equity for Customer Engagement Platform Brevo is a customer engagement platform that started out as an email marketing solution and gradually added more capabilities. Like many platforms, it has invested a great deal in AI over the past few years. It just raised €500 million…