Closer to home: Twitter has said it will no longer make third party data available for ad targeting. The move lets Twitter avoid responsibility for ensuring that companies like Acxiom, Epsilon, and Oracle have received proper consent for their data. Advertisers can still buy the data directly and send targeted lists to Twitter.
We had some interesting acquisitions last week. SurveyMonkey bought GetFeedback, a feedback collection app for Salesforce. That might sound redundant for a survey company but SurveyMonkey says it’s a strategic move to add enterprise clients.
Sadly, no discussion of digital advertising can avoid mentioning fraud. It’s still a huge problem but the industry is fighting back. The latest thrust comes from Google, which has announced its mobile ad platforms AdMob and Ad Manager will only serve ads that publishers have authorized by listing the seller in an app-ads.txt file. App-ads.txt and big sister ads.txt have been among the most successful anti-fraud measures.
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.