CDP Institute

“Distraction Control” is a feature Apple is rolling out for the iOS 18 Safari browser with no fanfare at all. Now available in iOS 18 developer beta, it will allow users to selectively and persistently block website features they find, well, distracting. That includes pop-up forms, banners, sign-in windows and, the one that’s sparking concern, ads.

Amazon has extended its social commerce tentacles to TikTok and Pinterest ads, enabling users to make Amazon purchases without leaving the apps. Users have to link their Amazon account to their app profile and Amazon keeps all the resulting data. Walmart already partners with TikTok on shoppable live streams.

Only 13% of companies restrict the corporate data that can be used in AI models and over 30% have no restrictions at all on users, apps or data, according to this Komprise survey of 300 global enterprise IT leaders. Nearly one-third (32%) are building proprietary learning models. In part it’s a staffing problem: 60% say they need more staff skilled in security, compliance and sensitive data.

Zeotap, a CDP focused on EMEA markets, has partnered with MetaRouter to help the secure and efficient management of customer data. MetaRouter offers server-side tag management and real-time event routing. It will collect and feed enriched behavioral data into Zeotap for segmentation and activation.

Brands that get personalization right are 71% more likely to report improved customer loyalty and 48% more likely to exceed their revenue goals, according to a report from Deloitte. Deloitte published its previous personalization report in 2022, since when the number of brands putting personalization at the center of customer experience has risen 50%. Disappointingly, although brands personalize over 60% of customer experiences, the customer only notices 43% of the time.

The most popular use case for AI among marketers (80%) is reducing time on repetitive tasks, according to a sample of some 1,800 surveyed by the Marketing AI Institute. Most (68%) feel positive about AI’s impact, even though 47% think it will eliminate more jobs than it will create. Interestingly, rather than boosting AI’s creative capabilities, respondents repeatedly refer to AI freeing humans up to do creative work.

Score one for the rich guy.  Just days after Elon Musk’s X filed a lawsuit charging members of the World Federation of Advertisers’ Global Alliance for Responsible Media had “colluded to withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from X, the WFA has disbanded GARM. The suit probably won’t yield more advertising for X, but that was never the point.

Customer engagement platform MessageGears has announced that it is “Google cloud ready.” A native integration with Google Cloud Big Query will enable direct access to data in that repository with, says MessageGears, no need to copy or move it. A reminder that Snowflake is not the only game in town.

Data-driven content and creativity platform XR Extreme Reach has expanded its partnership with streamer Roku to improve performance and insights and optimize targeting. Shared customers will be able to deliver ads directly to Roku and track engagement, conversions, and sales. They will also be able to leverage XR content intelligence to enhance creative effectiveness.

The rich can do as they please and the rest should do as they’re told, is the apparent legal theory underlying many Elon Musk lawsuits. His latest case attacks major advertisers for avoiding the hate- and lie-filled cesspool that once was Twitter.  Speaking of which, five secretaries of state have sent a letter asking Musk to do a better job of blocking election-related lies, even though they clearly lack standing since none is so much as a uni-billionaire.

Last year, then-Twitter tried to address advertisers’ brand safety concerns by partnering with DoubleVerify and IAS, which promise to stop ads from appearing near objectionable content.   But industry gadfly Adalytics has just found that those services often fail to block ads when they should.  The study didn’t focus on X although the same problems probably apply.

TikTok has bowed to pressure to remove a supposedly addictive rewards program in many European countries. The TikTok Lite app had been awarding points to members for watching and liking posts and inviting others to join. The E.U. says TikTok failed to disclose the risks associated with using the app, including its addictive potential.