CDP Institute

Meta has settled a facial recognition privacy suit with Texas for $1.48 billion. It is said to be the largest settlement secured by a single state; Meta settled similar allegations in Illinois for a relatively cheap $650 million. State law in Texas forbids capturing or selling a resident’s biometric data without their consent.

Perplexity becomes the latest generative AI platform to offer a share of revenue to publishers when ads appear in proximity to their content. Some publishers anyway (including Time, Der Spiegel, Fortune and WordPress.com). Condé Nast has sent Perplexity a cease-and-desist letter, while Forbes has complained about its content being used.

Fifty-five percent of consumers say brand interactions have gotten worse over the past year, while only 7% say they are better (based on a CallMiner survey of 530 U.S. adults). Problems cited include long wait times and the difficulty of reaching a live agent. Despite brands’ investments in CX technology, consumers still prefer a traditional phone call, even though 80% find agents to be distracted.

Measuring video audiences is a huge challenge for advertisers.  Comscore has simplified things a bit by expanding its partnership with YouTube beyond CTV to include video ad measurement on desktop, mobile browsers and mobile apps. The service is initially available in the U.S. but other countries will be able to see total YouTube audiences in 2025.

It’s tough for smaller agencies to deal with the ever-growing complexities of video and other programmatic digital advertising. Pathlabs makes it easier by helping midsize independent agencies to plan and report on paid ad campaigns.  They were just purchased by global programmatic agency MiQ, which expects Pathlabs to help it grow beyond serving big holding companies.

Looking for the right service provider to support your CDP project? The CDP Institute has just published its first Service Providers Report.  A one-page matrix lets you find vendors with the perfect mix of industry expertise, company size, client types, services, local presence, and more.

The practice of “hashing” email addresses, phone numbers or other identifiers does not guarantee anonymity, the Federal Trade Commission has warned. While hashing creates a numerical value that obscures identity, it can still be used to track an individual or device over time. Companies should not claim otherwise, the agency said.

Speedy food delivery brand Gopuff has joined the retail media space, launching an inhouse ads platform. Drawing on ten years of consumer data, Gopuff can surface target audiences and bid optimization based on shopping behavior, previous purchases, time of day and many other data points. Using AI, the platform is even faster than the delivery service.

Between 2019 and 2023, suspected digital fraud grew 105%, outpacing digital transactions which grew 90% according to a new report from TransUnion. By the end of 2023, lenders were facing over $3 billion exposure through the use of fake or synthetic identities for credit cards, auto loans and personal loans. Over 50% of consumers in 18 select countries and regions reported being targeted with fraud attempts, just between September and December 2023.

With the announcement of SearchGPT, OpenAI finally makes its long-anticipated entrance into the search market. Currently available is a prototype version and there’s a wait list to try it out. The plan is to provide not just a list of links in response to search queries, but organized answers with sources.

Auto dealer marketing platform Impel has acquired Outsell, an auto industry-focused CDP-plus-messaging system. Impel’s “conversational AI-based customer lifecycle management solution” serves auto dealers, OEMs and third-party marketplaces. The deal price includes more than $100 million in cash plus equity.

Over 60% of Connected TV advertisers expect to increase spending on the channel according to a study conducted by TV ad solution Premion with research firm Advertising Perceptions. The outlook sees spending rise by 21% on average. Thirty-six percent believe CTV advertising is more effective than traditional TV while just 17% says it’s worth less.