CDP Institute

Rudderstack is one of the CDPs that limits itself to data assembly.  They just launched Warehouse Actions, which converts CDP data into event streams as well as scheduled batch extracts.  Other new features make it easier to load cloud data into the system.

Every survey ever taken has found that personalized advertising is consumers’ least favorite reason for giving companies their data.  So we’re genuinely perplexed that Facebook is offering a “better ads experience” as a reason for Apple users to consent to data sharing. Before you spin an elaborate theory of what they’re really up to, remember Hanlon’s Razor: “never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.”

It seems like most big retailers have plans to sell digital ads on their Websites, apps, and in-store displays.  It’s a nice incremental revenue stream and levels the playing field a bit vs. Amazon.  Walmart has now taken the logical next step, announcing a deal to let The Trade Desk use its shopper data to target ads outside of Walmart properties.  Do I spy a privacy issue?

Does the entire notion of ad targeting strike you as a bit retro?  Mai (formerly Markable.AI) thinks people should just point at anything they see on a screen and buy it. They’ve added $5 million to their Series A to build AI-based image and video content recognition tech to make it happen.

It seems that Walmart and Mai both have the right idea.  Poor targeting and escaping the walled gardens are digital marketers’ top two concerns, according to this Criteo survey.  Also download to learn whether consumers worry most about fake news, privacy, or online scams.

Google and Facebook both stand to lose revenue from the Apple changes. Facebook has been characteristically obnoxious, making dubious anti-trust threats and cluelessly expecting sympathy that it may lose some revenue. Google has been more passively aggressive, delaying app updates that would require new labels and saying it will stop trying to collect the data even though (pause to wipe small tear from eye) the “vibrant and open app ecosystem” will suffer as a result.

Apple celebrated Privacy Day by announcing an “early spring” date to enforce its new rule that each app must request explicit opt-in to share users’ data with third parties. The strong expectation is that many won’t say yes and the flow of data to personalize ads and track results will be reduced to a trickle.

We were so focused on Privacy Day yesterday that I had to defer telling you that Episerver is renaming itself Optimizely, a company it purchased last fall. Neither name exactly screams “world’s best digital experience platform” but Optimizely was apparently the stronger brand. It was certainly more popular on Google Trends.

This isn’t quite a privacy item, but identity management is closely related.  On that front, Master Data Management vendor and borderline CDP Reltio has launched a free cloud-based identity resolution service.  Users can upload lists of names which the system will clean, store, and compare with previously-loaded names to flag potential matches for manual review.  The system will remember past matches so each user builds an expanded identity graph over time.

We see plenty of privacy stories but the editor of our Privacy Newsletter has dibs on all the good stuff. I did snag this report about ProtonMail and other privacy-first app vendors warning that the European Union Council seems disposed towards requiring “backdoor” access to encrypted messages.  The goal is to help law enforcement but there’s no real way to keep backdoors safe from unauthorized use.

Happy International Privacy Day, Dear Reader. You’ll find all sorts of events online. If you want to take concrete action, this page from the National Cybersecurity Alliance connects you with links to reset your personal privacy settings on more than one hundred sites including all your data-gobbling favorites. Hours of fun!

Recommendation engine Bloomreach is buying CDP and marketing automation vendor Exponea.  No price was announced.  The deal follows similar combinations including Segment/Twilio, Manthan/RichRelevance, CrossEngage/Gpredictive, Agilone/Acquia, and Emarsys/SAP.  Bloomreach also announced a $150 million funding.