Call it karmic balance: companies struggling to identify anonymous customers must also strain to verify that people who do identify themselves are really who they claim.  The reason, of course, is there are more fraud possibilities as online business expands.  One example of the growing identity authentication industry: Mastercard just bought anti-fraud identity specialist Ekata for a cool $850 million.

This Experian report finds that security is also a high concern for consumers, with 55% saying it’s the most important aspect of their online experience.    Businesses agree, rating fraud detection as their second-highest digital CX priority, well ahead of decisioning software, staff, and fixing legacy technology.  Intriguingly, consumers said they prefer biometrics, PIN codes, and behavioral analytics over passwords.  Interesting breakouts by region and age.

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.