The News Gods remain on holiday but we can always talk about blockchain. Comcast announced plans for an early 2019 test of its Blockgraph project, which lets addressable TV media companies and advertisers use blockchain-secured encrypted data to target ads without sharing personal data. It doesn’t give any more control to consumers but does limit how widely their information is spread.

Here’s yet another study on the topic, from research agency Corinium Digital. Respondents were lower down in their organizations and perhaps had a more hands-on view. Fifty percent said they’re looking to build or buy a unified platform to assemble analytical data. A frightening 69% said data quality problems make them less than fully confident in their current analytical results. Weird graphics in this one.

CX management platform Sprinklr is introducing “digital twins.” Not your average chatbot, a Sprinklr digital twin is more like an AI-powered employee, able to plan actions, create workflows and make decisions, but at speed and at scale. They are said to be more easily trained than chatbots and can operate within brand policies and guardrails.