CDP Institute

CrunchBot might respond to questions but will people trust the answers? The chances are a bit higher than last year according to Edeman’s 2019 Trust Barometer, which found slightly higher trust levels than in 2018. People trust their own employers much more (75%) than business in general (56%). And they put much less trust in news from social media (44%) than search (66%) or traditional media (44%). A whopping 73% worry about fake news being used as a weapon.

If trust levels do improve, one reason might be that governments are seen as doing a better job of protecting their citizens. News that the French National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) fined Google $57 million for GDPR violations could be a step in the right direction. While $57 million is about three hours’ worth of revenue for Google, what matters is the potential for much higher fines in the future.

There’s some chatter in the gurusphere that voice devices will replace smart phones as the primary personal electronic device. Color me skeptical but we do have this item that self-service customer care vendor Zappix has made its interactive voice response tools available on Amazon Alexa. It makes sense: Alexa already hears you curse when something doesn’t work, so she might as well offer to help.

One reason I doubt that voice devices will replace smart phones is that the phones are mobile. This makes them inherently more useful to consumers. It also lets companies like Netmining track people as they move about. This, in turn, enables deals like the one that Netmining just announced with digital out-of-home media agency Vistar Media, to target out-of-home ads more precisely. That’s a good thing for marketers, although consumers have little reason to care.

One advantage that voice devices have over phones is fewer ads, although that is likely to change. At the moment, mobile ads can be both annoying and security risks. Geoedge, helps publishers block problematic Internet ads, has added similar protection for in-app ads. It’s hard to imagine Amazon or Google allowing Geoedge to interfere with voice device ads but who knows what tomorrow will bring?

I can’t decide if a report that most consumers find chatbots annoying qualifies as obvious because, well, they are, or as non-obvious because most retail executives think chatbots make customers happy. Either way, this report funded by Oracle NetSuite documents dangerous gap between what customers want (a simple, streamlined experience) and what companies are delivering (lots of annoying interactions). Worth a look.

Hi, it’s Jamie, your faithful Department of the Obvious Intern. We’ve been having a slow year so I’m helping our Department of Counter-Intuitive Results. Lots of fun over there and they have better snacks. One hot item: Internet video has led to a rise in over-the-air TV viewing. Nielsen found that people who don’t want to pay for cable have discovered they can get their local broadcasts for free with this thing called an “antenna”. It’s like wi-fi without a router. Amazing!

Here’s another counter-intuitive gem: companies expect to hire more employees as they add automation. This from staffing agency ManpowerGroup. There’s some statistical sleight-of-hand here: companies that automate are growing but may add fewer jobs than are lost by the competitors they displace. Manpower finds that administrative and accounting jobs are most at risk. Unpaid interns seem to be safe.

I know you’re not that interested in privacy news, Dear Reader, but figure I can still slip in the occasional factiod. For example: a Pew study that found 74% of Facebook users don’t know the platform classifies their interests and 51% are not comfortable when they find out. Oh, and 27% say Facebook gets it wrong. Bear the first two figures in mind the next time someone says data gathering is based on consent. Remember the last one when you think about using that data for your own targeting.

Social media users might not understand the details of profiling, but they’re not entirely clueless. Tapatalk found that 74% agreed that the integrity of social media sites has declined and 80% would trust responses on a specialized forum more than responses on Facebook. Tapatalk runs specialized forums but that doesn’t wholly invalidate their results.

What can Facebook and friends do to regain public trust? Banning services that sell fake followers is a good start, as Facebook-owned Instagram did not long ago. But selling ads to companies that violate the ban is an even better way to make things worse. Sure enough, TechCrunch found that’s exactly what’s been happening. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. I thought so.

Messaging platform Urban Airship has expanded its geographic reach by acquiring Accengage, which it says is Europe’s largest provider of mobile CRM and push notifications. Urban Airship does similar things but is strongest in the Americas, UK and Nordic countries.