Looking a bit scary there based on reports that the country’s chief prosecutor will not allow the Hellenic Authority for Communication Security and Privacy (ADAE) privacy regulator, to audit telecom companies to ensure that the Greek secret service is not conducting undue surveillance.
Meta has just announced planned changes to give teens more control over ads and their privacy on Facebook & Instragram. Beginning next month, teens can choose types of ads they’d rather not see, and advertisers will no longer see user gender to use for ad targeting. The company will also provide information to teens about which ads they see, and teens will also be given the ability to hide any or all ads from a specific advertiser. Certainly, steps in the right direction.
Google Cloud is expanding its AI-based tools for retailers. The most intriguing new offering is pre-trained on billions of product images to visually check inventory levels on retailer shelves. You’ll recall that training data is the biggest bottleneck for many AI projects. Google also announced new storefront personalization and browsing features, plus optimized repurchase recommendations.
The past year has been tough for all kinds of tech investments. This LUMA report offers an overview of martech, adtech, and content tech financial activity in public markets, private financing, and mergers and acquisitions. To summarize a mixed picture: the bleeding has stopped but growth has not yet resumed.