Datalogix Closes $25 Million Financing Led by Institutional Venture Partners
via Datalogix Closes $25 Million Financing Led by Institutional Venture Partners | Reuters.
Fee-happy Ryanair is angling for a new revenue stream: Selling website user data to advertisers so they can target Ryanair.com lookers and bookers with advertisements and campaigns around the Web.
The head of the Senate Commerce Committee came out swinging at the online ad industry on Wednesday, accusing it of failing to honor an agreement to honor consumers’ requests to avoid online data collection.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said at a hearing on Wednesday that the online ad industry has failed to live up to a promise made at the White House last year to respect do-not-track headers — signals sent by browsers that tell Web sites users don’t want to be tracked.
“Advertising folks are continuing to ignore do-not-track headers,” Rockefeller said at the hearing. “There’s a broad feeling that the advertisers and data brokers are just dragging their feet. I believe that they are. And I believe they’re doing it purposely.”
via MediaPost Publications Rockefeller: Ad Industry ‘Dragging Its Feet’ On Do-Not-Track 04/25/2013.
I cringe when the data component of the online ad value chain is made out to be the most important thing. There’s value there but it’s not powerful enough to be the thing you can lead with.
Armed with consumer information, Amazon can bid more aggressively on exchanges because it is confident that ads created from that inventory will be clicked on more often. The company can also charge advertisers more because its ads are better targeted, according to industry insiders and analysts.
“Amazon is not a retailer anymore, it is the largest behavioral marketing company in the world,” said Yaakov Kimelfeld, chief research officer at Kantar Media Compete, which helps global brands improve their online marketing. “Amazon will be the best positioned to predict whether to buy inventory or not and be the most efficient in this market.”
via Analysis: Sleeping ad giant Amazon finally stirs | Reuters.
Sounds like Foursquare is feeling the pressure to generate revenues:
Foursquare has started pitching digital agencies on a new ad product that would use Foursquare’s location and behavioral data to contextualize ads on other platforms, executives familiar with the situation said.
The ad product is still in development and will eventually allow advertisers to use Foursquare data to target ads purchased through ad exchanges or networks.
via Foursquare to Start Offering Data to Third-Party Advertisers | Digital – Advertising Age.
Facebook Home does not use location data any differently than the full Facebook app does, and Android device users always have the option to turn location services off. Facebook Home will not collect any user data from apps that interact with the service, such as SMS messages. Facebook Home will, however, “maintain a list of the apps … in the Home app launcher … in identifiable form for 90 days and use it to provide the service and improve how it works.” After 90 days, the identifying data is stripped out.
via Facebook Addresses ‘Home’ Privacy Concerns (Phone Scoop).
EBay has long used its proprietary user data and partnerships with data management platforms to grow its eBay Marketplaces business by promoting merchants’ products to users who have previously bought or shown interest in a related item on eBay.
“We’re now commercializing that capability for the benefit of other marketers who want to reach shoppers. That’s something new this year,” said eBay’s head of digital display in North America, Stephen Howard-Sarin, at AdExchanger’s Programmatic I/O conference in San Francisco today.
Facing a wave of employee theft, retailers across the country have helped amass vast databases of workers accused of stealing and are using that information to keep employees from working again in the industry.
The databases, which have tens of thousands of subscribers and are used by major retailers like Target, CVS and Family Dollar, are aimed at combating employee theft, which accounts for a large swath of missing merchandise. The latest figures available, from 2011, put the loss at about 44 percent of missing merchandise, valued at about $15 billion, according to a trade group, the National Retail Federation.
via Retailers Use Databases to Track Worker Thefts – NYTimes.com.
Stores want your ZIP code because, combined with your name from your credit card, they can use it to find out other information about you from commercial databases, like your full mailing address. They may even sell the information to data brokers, who sell it to other marketers.
TLDR: Behaviorally, humans make inconsistent decisions on giving away private data for money. This article is about a researcher who combines behavioral economist (of the Kahneman variety) with online privacy issues:
IF iron ore was the raw material that enriched the steel baron Andrew Carnegie in the Industrial Age, personal data is what fuels the barons of the Internet age. Mr. Acquisti investigates the trade-offs that users make when they give up that data, and who gains and loses in those transactions. Often there are immediate rewards (cheap sandals) and sometimes intangible risks downstream (identity theft). “Privacy is delayed gratification,” he warned.
via Web Privacy, and How Consumers Let Down Their Guard – NYTimes.com.
