Author: rssmasher

Facebook said it logs the call and messaging histories of some Android smartphone users who installed its messaging app or a lighter version of its main Facebook app.

Recently, eMarketer revealed its first business-to-business digital ads forecast, estimating that the space will total $4.6 billion in 2018, up 13 percent from last year’s $4.07 billion. And when comparing this year’s forecast to 2013, B2B digital ad budgets will have grown by 111 percent in only five years. These numbers are important because they…

In the past couple of years, a revival of the game show genre has swept TV, with shows like Celebrity Family Feud, Match Game, $100,000 Pyramid and Snoop Dogg Presents The Joker’s Wild. And now the craze has expanded to mobile devices, led by game show sensation app HQ Trivia. That’s good news for GSN…

A recent report released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has marketers on edge. It breaks down the successful digital business strategies made commonplace by direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands like Warby Parker and Casper, whose customer experience-driven product strategy is systematically stifling growth for some of the world’s largest brands. The stakes are high. “Big brands…

If you’re looking to make your hip consumerism more seamless, Apple would like you to consider the iPhone X. A new minute-long ad features a casually dressed young man walking through an open-air market with a group of friends. Spotting a booth full of fancy hats, he walks in. Anticipating a purchase, he slides his…

I couldn’t. Well, technically, I couldn’t “delete” it, but I was able to “deactivate” it, making me think that Facebook owns the past decade of my presence on its platform for perpetuity. According to
its notification to me, the deactivation merely disabled my profile and removed my name and photo from most of the things I’ve shared on Facebook. “Some information may still be visible to others,
such as your name in their friends list and messages you sent.”

GroupM wants publishers to sign a new data protection contract that could force them to share control of their audience data with the agency group, letting the agency continue targeting ads after the General Data Protection Regulation kicks in on May 25.

If publishers don’t sign the contract, GroupM said it would cease trading with them, claiming it would mean they aren’t necessarily compliant with the GDPR. Some publishers fear GroupM is pushing them to cover its own GDPR compliance needs, while leaving liability for fines firmly with the publisher.

The media-buying giant has said it sent the Data Protection Addendum to all its suppliers and vendors “that touch personal data in any way” in the European Union. The DPA is a contractually binding set of data protection principles that publishers would be expected to adhere to under the GDPR. The contract is nonnegotiable, according to the document.

Publishers’ legal teams are reviewing the document, but five publishers Digiday spoke to are feeling rattled by the terminology in the contract, with some calling it a “Trojan horse” document that could result in the publisher having to share the control of their data with Group M, promoting the agency group to be more like what the GDPR calls a data controller (from its current position as a data processor), which is the source of customer data. A data controller is regarded as a stronger position to be in, because they can communicate directly with the customer about consent needs, whereas a data processor doesn’t have that direct line of access as it uses data from a third-party source.

A GroupM spokesperson sent the following statement: “GroupM has an extensive GDPR program of which the GroupM data addendum forms only one part. The GroupM Data Addendum was prepared for all GroupM suppliers processing personal data whether that personal data belonged to GroupM, its clients or the supplier in question. The intention of the Data Addendum is to clearly signal the GroupM commitment to data privacy and to ask our suppliers to demonstrate the same commitment.”

The spokesperson added that the contract does not seek to impose any greater liability than already exists in the law and that the agency will handle publisher questions on a case-by-case basis.

Asked about publisher concerns about cutting ties with GroupM if they don’t sign, a GroupM spokesperson sent the following statement: “The future of our relationships with suppliers will depend on the nature of the supplier in question and the processing activities it carries out and how it demonstrates its commitment to data privacy and in particular GDPR.”

The issue of who is expected to gain consent from users and take liability for it is becoming clouded as GDPR enforcement looms. Publishers are known consumer brands and the source of the data. That means they’re in the best position to obtain consent from users with whom they have a direct relationship. For agencies and ad tech vendors further along the ad supply chain, it’s harder to gain consent. That has essentially put a target on publishers’ backs, with ad tech vendors and agencies trying to use them as vehicles to gain consent so they can continue ad targeting under the GDPR.

Amid a long list of terms and conditions in the DPA is a section on tags and data collection, which outlines how GroupM will be allowed to drop cookies and profile audiences, along with sharing publisher data while taking no liability risk itself. The terms and conditions state that publisher sites must accept rich media tags and other ad-serving tags and that the “agency and advertiser shall have no liability for the effect of tags on the sites.”

Industry sources said GroupM is essentially asking publishers to hand over their relationship with their audience — a big ask, given audience data is a publisher’s most precious asset.

Publishers’ legal teams are reviewing the document, but so far, the general consensus is they’re unlikely to sign the DPA. “Any publisher worth their salt won’t sign it,” said an industry executive. “It flouts the spirit of GDPR and undermines the business models of most publishers.”

GroupM’s contract comes at a time when Google is reportedly asking publishers to assume a “co-controller” position in GDPR compliance, wanting them to gain consent on its behalf for third-party websites and apps that use Google’s ad technology to sell ads, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Internet Advertising Bureau Europe’s Transparency & Consent Framework, aimed at getting the whole industry compliant before GDPR enforcement starts, also requires publishers to agree to get consent on behalf of any ad tech partners they want to trade with, though it is optional for publishers to use it.

GroupM has opted to support the IAB Europe framework after scrapping its previous attempt to get publishers across the U.K. and EU countries to gain consent on its behalf — an initiative known as “Passport” — because publishers refused to cooperate.

“[GroupM explained] it as a very fair initiative for the market and that it’s in everyone’s best interest for them to get consent this way,” said a publishing executive of the Passport initative. “But they have also said that if you [publishers] don’t share consent, then they can’t use the technology to buy it [publisher inventory] that’s needed so they’ll have to stop trading. It’s like blackmail.”

Download Digiday’s guide to GDPR for original research, myths and realities and more on what marketers, publishers and technology companies need to know.

The post GroupM’s preparing for GDPR by requiring publishers sign a data-protection contract appeared first on Digiday.

Love it or hate it, HQ Trivia is a phenomenon. Created by Vine co-founders Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll, the application blends entertainment and trivia to deliver live interactive content to an audience of anywhere between 500,000 and 2 million viewers per broadcast. Even with a valuation of more than $100 million, at the center…

Adobe Advertising Cloud now integrates TVSquared’s platform to provide same-day TV analytics and optimization data for brands. The partnership will soon expand to include SearchSync, TVSquared’s
feature that connects TV spots with paid search.

Facebook has some 240 million U.S. monthly users, and some 2.2 billion worldwide, making it an easy target for governmental regulators worldwide. That’s especially true in light of the Cambridge
Analytica scandal.