Returning from la-la land, digital testing platform Optimizely has raised a $50 million Series D, bringing total funding to $200 million. Good to know there’s still some interest in reality-based decisions.
Current real time bidding processes for online ads grossly violate the European Union’s privacy rules, says a report from the UK’s Information Commissioner, who is in charge of such things. She cites both General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PERC). Enforcement actions haven’t followed but the message is clear.
Clear Channel Outdoor has more than 450,000 outdoor displays worldwide. At least some of those track nearby mobile devices, which lets the company profile ad audiences, measure campaign impact, and cross-target ads. The company is now letting advertisers upload their own customer data to its system to allow even richer analysis. Plenty of individual-level data here although it’s technically anonymous.
The integrated cloud communications market is relevant here because it increasingly overlaps with marketing systems. So you should probably care at least a little that cloud-based communications platform 8×8 has agreed to pay $250 million for Fuze, which offers roughly similar products.