Microsoft Azure has released a tool to discover and map data residing in all systems, within and outside of Azure itself. Azure Purview scans metadata and adds data sensitivity levels that help enforce limits based on privacy or other considerations. Data discovery is a key challenge for both Customer Data Platform implementations and privacy management.

Privacy concerns may also be hitting Facebook where it hurts. This DigiDay report says that media buyers are being told to shift budgets elsewhere. Privacy is one possible reason; high ad costs, poor ad tools, and more competitive options are others. Color me skeptical, although this Dentsu report says Facebook growth shows some weakness.

With CDP vendors increasing their workforces by 3.4% in six months, compared with an average of 0.2% each six months over the prior two years, the sector seems to be growing again, according to our own semi-annual industry update. There is much talk of composable CDPs but they still employ no more than 5% of the sector workforce. What is a clear trend is the acquisition of independent CDPs by vendors interested in adding a CDP to a larger system (usually an activation system).