After much breathless press speculation, Google announced incremental changes in how cookies are handled in its Chrome browser. Some data sharing will be blocked and users will gain more fine-grained control over how they are tracked. It was more roadmap than roadblock but still a step forward.

You knew your smart speaker had a microphone, but what about that treadmill at the gym? Equipment maker Life Fitness has launched an ad network on its devices, complete with programmatic inventory sold through Vistar Media. So far it doesn’t seem the advertising is targeted at individuals but surely that comes next. Not possible, you scoff? Remember that treadmills already have biometric sensors and Internet connections.

Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.