Voice recognition isn’t new, but it’s much more important now that devices like Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri are capturing consumer intent.  (See this blog post for a deeper analysis.)  So it’s worth noting that Adobe Analytics can now extract information from speech captured on voice-enabled devices.  This will make it easier for companies other than the device owners to use data from those interactions, assuming the outsiders are granted access to what’s said.

And again: purchase data aggregator IRI has launched the IRI Personalization Suite, which combines IRI’s own point of sale, panel, credit card, and location data with information from more than 250 million shopper loyalty cards.  The data can be used for planning, advertising audience creation, media optimization, and results measurement.  It’s a cloud-based game-changer!

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.