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In a deal being announced today with one of the world’s largest aggregators of mobile user identities and behaviors, Nielsen’s eXelate unit will dramatically expand its footprint of data identifying mobile users. The deal is significant because eXelate is already one of the dominant data management platforms (DMP) and exchanges enabling brands and publishers to identify and target consumers with digital ads online -- and increasingly in mobile. It is also significant because it enables Nielsen’s eXelate to dramatically increase its coverage of the mobile user universe at a time when the power of identifying and targeting mobile users appears to be shifting to so-called “walled gardens” -- especially Google and Facebook -- that are able to leverage their user log-ins and extend their reach to the universe of mobile apps and users that integrate with it. The agreement with Seattle-based PushSpring will enable both companies to make more of a market out of PushSpring’s data, which processes “billions of monthly mobile app and device-level signals.” Company executives said they didn’t know exactly how much the deal would boost eXelate’s coverage of the mobile user universe, or even how big the universe actually is -- after factoring for the complex nature of cookie and device inflation, redundancy and deflation factors. But they offered to come up with an estimate and provide it to MediaPost in the near future. --- Full article available at http://goo.gl/mlF2kT (link is external)

37th International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners Amsterdam, The Netherlands We join together this week in Amsterdam, celebrating the success of Max Schrems in the case before the European Court of Justice concerning Safe Harbor. NGO leaders around the world have expressed support for Max’s courageous legal battle, and we have praised the landmark judgment of the Court. The Court of Justice reaffirmed the fundamental rights of privacy and data protection in our modern information economy. The Court made clear the responsibility of national data protection agencies to safeguard fundamental rights. We also recognize the important work underway by privacy officials, civil society, and innovators around the globe to safeguard personal freedoms. The challenges to privacy and data protection are never ending. We acknowledge and thank those who work to make our lives a little safer and a little more secure. Within the NGO Community, we have worked for many years to advance the right to privacy. Beginning in 1999, the TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) first called attention to the weaknesses of the Safe Harbor regime. We urged lawmakers to update privacy laws and address growing concerns among consumers about data abuse. Ten years later, the Public Voice gathering at the Commissioners conference in Spain issued the Madrid Privacy Declaration, widely endorsed by NGOs and experts around the world. More recently, civil society leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have called for new legal protections to end mass surveillance and to restore trust and confidence in the digital economy. It is against this background that we express concern about the conference this year in Amsterdam. We were surprised and disappointed that the conference organizers this year focused on a report recommending actions that would do little to change the business or government behavior that threatens privacy and data protection. The report recommends no substantive changes in law. Particularly after the Safe Harbor decision, the “Bridges report” is remarkably out of touch with the current legal reality and what we need to do to address it. The failure of the Amsterdam conference to engage with the many new challenges, from “Big Data” to drone surveillance, is also a lost opportunity. The practical consequence of focusing instead on failed policies, such as self- regulation, will be to make more difficult the work of the privacy experts around the world who could have otherwise benefitted from a meaningful discussion about how to move forward on legislation, aggressive enforcement, and other steps that are long overdue. Yes, they are difficult; all the more reason why we need to act now. Digital rights organization and consumer NGOs call on the Data Protection Commissioners to refocus their attention on the need to update and enforce privacy law. There is a long tradition of civil society engagement with the annual conference. There has always been a “constructive tension” between the Data Protection commissioners and civil society. But we have always shared a common goal – the strengthening of fundamental rights and the protection of privacy and data protection. Toward those objectives, we remain united. We look forward to conferences that actively support and encourage discourse with civil society about the future of privacy and data protection. --- Full statement in the attached document.

This unique interdisciplinary conference is taking place October 23-26 at the intimate venue of the Oudemanhuispoort in the heart of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It is organized by the Amsterdam Platform for Privacy Research (APPR), an initiative of the University of Amsterdam with active participants from such diverse disciplines as philosophy, law, economics, informatics, social sciences, medical sciences and media sciences. APC 2015 will bring together leading experts in the field of privacy who will formulate, discuss and answer the challenging privacy questions that lie ahead of us. APC 2015 offers both parallel and keynote sessions. Confirmed keynote speakers are: Anita Allen, Bill Binney, Julie Brill, Gabriella Coleman, Amatai Etzioni, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, Deirdre Mulligan, Helen Nissenbaum, Peter Schaar, Max Schrems, Ashkan Soltani and Latanya Sweeney. For the full conference program, please click here. (link is external)

Leading the digital resolution Today consumers move seamlessly between their desktop, laptop, mobile phones, and other connected devices. Depending on which site a consumer visits, what they're doing, if they're on an app or a mobile browser, there are different identifiers used. Because there isn't a consistent way of identifying consumers, marketers often see these people as different people, or, in some cases, not at all. Digital identification is the key to understanding the consumer journey, and the Identity Manager (link is external) accomplishes this via device recognition and digital identification resolution. Device recognition Device recognition is accomplished through a comprehensive statistical device-level identifier. Our proprietary statistical ID expands audience visibility where cookies and other identifiers are ineffective. This is a privacy compliant way to identify the uniqueness of a device based on statistical analysis. Digital identification resolution The process of digital identification resolution enables a customer to recognize, connect and resolve identification data to understand consumers across their devices and environments. Customers use their own data in conjunction with device recognition capabilities to reconcile the information to correspond to a single device, or a group of devices utilized by an individual or household. Benefits of device recognition and digital identification resolution include: Synchronized anonymous ID – Our proprietary statistical ID gives customers the ability to recognize the same device anonymously across all digital touch points in the ecosystem. Bridging capabilities - connect web events and app events coming from the same device. Technology and platform agnostic - works with all types of devices regardless of type, browser, platform, or other environments, including emerging technologies. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1GolPwf (link is external)

Drawbridge understands consumers. A lot of companies can say that, but we take it a step further. In fact, we can actually predict consumer behavior. Is that even possible? Because we know how people use their devices to get information about things they are interested in, we understand their patterns, tendencies, intentions and goals even before they do. This enables us to provide our customers with the most comprehensive understanding of their customers, on a one-to-one basis. Drawbridge has built the first effective cross-device identity technology. We bridge data from personal computing devices, mobile devices, and emerging devices to reach more than one billion consumers across more than three billion devices. The Drawbridge Connected Consumer Graph is constructed using machine-learning algorithms that observe and process vast amounts of data. Identity: The Drawbridge Connected Consumer Graph includes more than 1.2 billion consumers connected across more than 3.6 billion devices to date, with accuracy verified at 97.3%. This cross-device identity framework forms the base of the entire Drawbridge platform. Data: Drawbridge enables marketers to enhance their understanding of consumers for cross-device marketing purposes – extending desktop data across mobile devices and vice versa. This holistic consumer view is achieved by layering first- or third-party audience segments, location attributes, CRM data, and other custom attributes with the Connected Consumer Graph. Reach: Drawbridge has built a proprietary cross-device targeting, pricing, and optimization engine, as well as a cross-device bidder to maximize consumer reach across devices. Attribution: Drawbridge provides brands with a complete, 360-degree view of their audiences, giving marketers the ability to measure cross-device influence and attribute consumer actions online and offline. --- For more about Drawbridge visit http://bit.ly/1ZXmOzr (link is external)

Mondelez International has renewed its global partnership with Facebook, originally signed in March 2014. Like the first contract, this one spans 52 countries and allows Mondelez to opt into beta-testing programs on Facebook and Instagram. In this new phase, Mondelez said, the companies will be focusing on the fastest-growing consumer behaviors — video consumption and mobile commerce — working together to create and deliver video content to drive impulse snack purchases. Mondelez and its agencies will work with a dedicated, full-time Facebook creative strategist to develop native, scalable video content for the platform that can optimize social engagement. The partnership, brokered through Dentsu Aegis Media, also calls for Facebook to develop playbooks, Webinars and e-learning modules that create a unified approach to developing content for the platform across Mondelez brands. The global snack and candy maker was unambiguous about its goals: To make Facebook its largest digital storefront and to position Mondelez as an e-commerce leader, with particular focus on driving online sales for its "power brands" in key markets including the U.S., U.K., India and Australia. “The partnership with Facebook is a core element of our fearless marketing vision which aims at accelerating growth through transformational marketing,” said Dana Anderson, SVP and CMO at Mondelez, in the deal announcement. “Investing in large-scale media partnerships enables us to connect our brands with consumers in new creative ways.” “Facebook is the number one player in mobile, and its ability to reach Millennial consumers, our primary target audience, is what makes our partnership so invaluable,” added Cindy Chen, Mondelez's global head of e-commerce. “Used by consumers and distributors alike, Facebook is the ideal channel for cracking the code on how to ‘sell a cookie online,’ creating a true social digital commerce model with the potential to become our largest digital storefront.” --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1Nk7eH6 (link is external)

Micro-moments are transforming the way consumers shop. Retailers have to win micro-moments to win omni-channel shoppers. As we head into the holiday season, Google's VP of Marketing, Lisa Gevelber, shares three ways retailers can be moments-ready, using examples from those that have seen success. This past summer, America fell in love with women's soccer. My two daughters were among the most avid fans, and they, like millions of others, got swept up in the moment. During one match, smartphone in hand, I searched for the team jersey one of my daughters "had to have." Conveniently, an ad for a Megan Rapinoe jersey—her favorite player—appeared, signaling that the jersey was in stock at a local retailer just a few miles from our house. This upcoming holiday season, shoppers will have plenty of these micro-moments (link is external)—intent-driven I-want-to-know (link is external), I-want-to-go (link is external), I-want-to-do (link is external), and I-want-to-buy (link is external) moments. These moments are big opportunities for retailers; 82% of smartphone users say they consult their phones on purchases they're about to make in a store,1 and one in three has purchased from a company or brand other than the one he or she intended to because of information received in a micro-moment.2 So, are we as brands delivering on these moments? A new Harvard Business Review Analytic Services (link is external)(HBR-AS) report (link below) sheds some light: "Most executives will have their hands full optimizing and integrating their channels, but one thing is for sure: Mobile—increasingly the entry point to a business—is the place to begin." And a recent Google-commissioned Forrester Research (link is external) study of more than 200 mobile and digital decision makers echoes this: 70% of companies say that mobile has urged them to transform their businesses and experiences. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1Pl15gc (link is external)

If he were alive today, department store magnate John Wanamaker, who famously wondered which half of the money he spent on advertising was wasted, would be doubly frustrated. The odds are that he’d still be misspending—even though the tools and techniques that can finally solve his conundrum would lie within his reach. Digital’s potential—the delivery of relevant advertisements to interested users at opportune times—has enticed marketers since the earliest days of the World Wide Web. More recently, programmatic buying of display advertising has promised to extend the benefits of digital advertising by using instantaneous data in a real-time environment to reach individuals with relevant messages. In practice, however, a variety of factors undercut digital advertising’s capabilities. Tests conducted by The Boston Consulting Group show that although current techniques are often effective, companies have an opportunity to achieve significantly better engagement and performance by adopting the latest data-driven approaches—in ways that enhance both relevance and the consumer experience. (See “About This Report.”) Advertisers and agencies are leaving money on the table because of inexperience with these new capabilities, inconsistent campaign execution, and a fragmented approach to campaign development and delivery. --- Full article available at http://on.bcg.com/1m5ghCf (link is external)

New York, NY October 1, 2015 – Overall M&A activity across the media, information, marketing, software and tech-enabled services sectors was red-hot during the first three quarters of 2015, with 1,758 transactions announced at a total value of $106.2 billion year to date. Both deal volume and value showed solid gains over the same period in 2014, when 1,636 deals totaled $96.8 billion in value. With the M&A market continuing its surge, deal activity inched closer to a level not seen since the pre-recession period in 2007, according to The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) (www.jegi.com (link is external)), the leading independent investment bank across these core markets. Large Deals in 2015 YTD Twenty transactions in these sectors surpassed $1 billion in value through Q3 2015, including the: Fidelity National Information Services $5.1 billion acquisition of financial software and services provider SunGard Verizon $4.8 billion acquisition of digital media company AOL Cox Automotive $4.5 billion acquisition of DealerTrack Technologies, a provider of web-based marketing solutions to the automotive retail industry Media General $3.1 billion acquisition of diversified consumer media company Meredith Audi, BMW and Daimler $3.1 billion acquisition of Nokia’s HERE, a provider of maps and location content for navigation, location-based services and mobile advertising applications Verisk Analytics $2.8 billion acquisition of Wood Mackenzie, a global energy, metals and mining research and consultancy group QVC $2.5 billion acquisition of zulily, the online retailer of merchandise for women, children and housewares SS&C Technologies $2.5 billion acquisition of Advent Software, a provider of vertical applications for the financial services industry McGraw Hill Financial $2.2 billion acquisition of SNL Financial, a provider of analysis and business intelligence on financial institutions Expedia $1.7 billion acquisition of online travel site Orbitz LinkedIn $1.5 billion acquisition of Lynda.com, a provider of online educational videos for individuals to learn business, software, technology and creative skills Nikkei $1.3 billion acquisition of global business news provider The Financial Times TPG Capital, Fosun Industrial Holdings and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec joint $1.2 billion acquisition of consumer entertainment shows creator Cirque du Soleil Software & Tech-Enabled Services With overall M&A activity booming, the Software & Tech-Enabled Services sector has been leading the charge. Given the rapid advances in global technology, coupled with the increasing convergence of media, marketing, data and technology, companies are investing heavily in growing their software and technology capabilities through M&A. The most active sector by far, Software & Tech-Enabled Services accounted for more than half of the deal volume and value, with 1,091 transactions totaling $58.1 billion. The chart on the left in the included PDF shows a breakdown of deal volume by sub-sector within this red-hot sector. Application software was the most active sub-sector, with nearly one-third of the Software & Tech-Enabled Services sector deals. Other active sub-sectors were IT services & distribution (17% of the deals), mobility (12%), IT outsourcing (10%) and information management (9%). The chart on the right shows a further breakdown of the segments within the application software sub-sector. Vertical applications accounted for the highest deal volume (31%), followed by enterprise resource planning (18%), customer relationship management (15%) and business intelligence (13%). --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1jkdrt0 (link is external) Full JEGI press release, attached.

Aims to Be the World’s Single Largest Integrated Set of Consumer, Purchase and Media Data; Foundation for Breakthrough Prescriptive Analytics, Software and Technology CHICAGO and AUSTIN, Texas — April 21, 2015 — Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), a global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and over-the-counter health care companies, announced today the launch of IRI Shopper Marketing Cloud™, expected to be the world’s largest integrated consumer, purchase and media data set built inside IRI’s leading Liquid Data™ technology platform and powered by its recently announced Q-IRI™ prescriptive analytics engine for comprehensive planning, targeting, activating and measuring by fully linking media to store-level or online purchase. “We are at the beginning of a consumer buying revolution, one that will change how consumers shop and make decisions in fundamental ways over the next decade,” said Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer, IRI. “IRI is focused on transforming the entire shopper journey by helping companies grow and by helping consumers make better buying choices. This integrated data, analytics and technology will help manufacturers and retailers unlock new pockets of growth and do it faster than ever before.” Arming CPG companies with an incredibly powerful platform for growth, IRI Shopper Marketing Cloud encompasses the whole portfolio of data sets and insights, focusing on media, social and purchase. Media Data Sets To ensure the most comprehensive media data, IRI has expanded its ongoing collaboration with Rentrak and comScore to move beyond tracking ad exposure and include full integration of cross-media TV and digital campaign tracking powered by IRI’s ProScores™ purchase propensity models. Social Data Sets IRI also is expanding the ability to understand and leverage the impact of social sentiment on consumer activation and sales activities, and will be announcing an exclusive partnership that will guide CPG companies through targeting, activating and measuring campaign efforts. Consumer and Media Consumption Data Sets Leveraging valued relationships with retailers, IRI has continued to make huge investments to improve the ability to track purchases online and offline at a granular level. Working closely with retailers to help them connect with consumers, IRI Shopper Marketing Cloud offers enhanced performance by linking the same media and social data to retailers’ frequent shopper databases for unique insights and in-store activation. It also tracks what media consumers have been exposed to and what products they have purchased. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1ZkycVz (link is external)

Today we’re launching cross-device reporting for Facebook ads, enabling advertisers to see for the first time how people are moving between devices — across mobile apps and the web — before they convert. Reporting for a multi-device world Imagine seeing an ad for a product on your mobile phone while in line at the bank. Do you immediately make a purchase on your phone? Probably not. But perhaps you go back to your office later that day and buy on your desktop computer. Such cross-device conversions are becoming increasingly common as people move between their phones, tablets and desktop computers (link is external) to interact with businesses. Facebook already offers targeting, delivery and conversion measurement across devices. With the new cross-device report, advertisers are now able to view the devices on which people see ads and the devices on which conversions subsequently occur. For instance, a marketer can view the number of customers that clicked an ad on an iPhone but then later converted on desktop, or the number of people that saw an ad on desktop but then converted on an Android tablet. Full article available at https://www.facebook.com/business/news/cross-device-measurement (link is external)

Recent moves by Google (link is external) and Facebook have left some industry observers declaring this the dawn of a “walled garden” era of ad tech (link is external) — one in which brands and agencies need to use a platform’s ad tech when purchasing that platform’s media. But the agency holding company Omnicom Group has found a novel use for Atlas: Checking Google’s math. It has begun adding Atlas tracking pixels to measure ads served by DoubleClick, Google’s ad serving competitor, to compare each product’s results against one another, according to executives familiar with the agency’s ad tech plans. It marks the first major test for the nascent Atlas and the people-based measurement system it has been espousing as a replacement for cookie targeting. This could be the start of more competition for DoubleClick, according to several ad tech executives. Adding Atlas tags to DoubleClick-served ads will get Omnicom two distinct reports on its ad campaigns: one from Atlas, which measures campaign performance against Facebook login data, and another from DoubleClick, which employs cookies for measurement. Despite signing a deal last September to become the first agency to use Atlas — the ad server Facebook bought in February 2013 and re-released last fall — Omnicom has yet to convince many clients to start using Atlas for ad serving. That means they have yet to tap into Atlas’s unique targeting capabilities, which includes Facebook’s trove of users data. This is a way to utilize Atlas without abandoning DoubleClick. Facebook has pushed Atlas with what it calls “people-based (link is external)” marketing, which it claims will not only be more accurate for desktop campaigns than cookies but will provide the long-sought-after solution to mobile’s cookie problem (link is external). Cookies are functionally useless on mobile, making targeting mobile users difficult. Because Facebook has so many users who log in to their accounts on both desktops and mobile devices, they have a unique data set that could potentially solve marketers’ cross-device advertising woes. Google, for its part, spent much of the last three years requiring users to create a Google Plus account when signing up for various Google products, such as Gmail, in a move that was widely considered a way for it to move away from cookie-based tracking. The requirement was lifted this past September (link is external). Indeed, cross-device tracking was a major motivation behind the Facebook-Atlas deal. But before Omnicom starts using Atlas’ ad server for those unique targeting capabilities, it wants to make sure Atlas actually identifies audiences the way it claims. And that means using Atlas to measure campaigns that are still served by DoubleClick. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1J3cj4j (link is external)

Leading the digital resolution Today consumers move seamlessly between their desktop, laptop, mobile phones, and other connected devices. Depending on which site a consumer visits, what they're doing, if they're on an app or a mobile browser, there are different identifiers used. Because there isn't a consistent way of identifying consumers, marketers often see these people as different people, or, in some cases, not at all. Digital identification is the key to understanding the consumer journey, and the Identity Manager (link is external) accomplishes this via device recognition and digital identification resolution. Device recognition Device recognition is accomplished through a comprehensive statistical device-level identifier. Our proprietary statistical ID expands audience visibility where cookies and other identifiers are ineffective. This is a privacy compliant way to identify the uniqueness of a device based on statistical analysis. Digital identification resolution The process of digital identification resolution enables a customer to recognize, connect and resolve identification data to understand consumers across their devices and environments. Customers use their own data in conjunction with device recognition capabilities to reconcile the information to correspond to a single device, or a group of devices utilized by an individual or household. Benefits of device recognition and digital identification resolution include: Synchronized anonymous ID – Our proprietary statistical ID gives customers the ability to recognize the same device anonymously across all digital touch points in the ecosystem. Bridging capabilities - connect web events and app events coming from the same device. --- For all the benefits and the article in full, visit http://bit.ly/1GolPwf (link is external)

Merkle’s Connected Recognition process manages and associates identifiers across channels and media to fuel the execution and optimization of integrated marketing and sales activities. There is an astounding amount of available data about every person. From traditional census data to emotional and personality-driven insights, it is theoretically possible for a brand to paint a highly detailed, accurate picture of each of their customers. But this promised land of insight requires several often-siloed departments to share information, not to mention significant technical and process implements to collect, store, and interpret the data. As a result, marketers resort to sub-optimal point solutions. For example, many brands use a small purpose-built data integration or feed email remarketing. This typically leverages an email identifier only. Similarly, for site optimization, marketers are beginning to leverage personalization, but typically ignore the rich CRM data that should inform decisioning. Each approach ignores valuable amounts of data related to the history of activity, depth of the interaction, and breath of insights available through more robust linking approaches. Connected Recognition (cR) overcomes this and more. The Identity Map The solution creates an identity map across all party or user identifiers that become tied to an individual. This map becomes your reference base by cross-referencing all identity attributes related to both “known” and “unknown” data. A master party (or customer) identifier is generated to leverage all possible information from both strong and weak identifiers. Strong identifiers are those that can be linked to an offline user identity in a customer data file (such as name and address). These include transaction IDs such as online order, registration or lead IDs, as well as account login numbers, customer numbers, service tags, etc. Weak IDs are the primary identifiers found in digital interactions. By their nature, they are anonymous and often very transient. Examples of weak IDs include IP addresses, cookies, device fingerprints and social login or handle. The Connected Event Stream Once the identity map is created, the Connected Recognition solution creates an event stream where all customer engagement is tied back to the master identifier. This event stream is created for all “known” parties, whether they are repeat customers or anonymous parties that visited the website. All consumer interactions can be tied to the event stream to support integrated, cross media and channel marketing decisions. This includes outbound marketing touches such as direct mail, display impressions, email, or mobile texts, and inbound interactions such as important events that occurred while a consumer browsed the website – downloading a white paper, registering for email, browsing a product or filling out an information request form. The final output is something that looks like an active timeline for each consumer with the brand. --- Full article and video available at http://bit.ly/1KRifMW (link is external)

Mobile internet advertising will overtake newspaper advertising next year, accounting for 12.4% of global adspend while newspapers account for 11.9%, according to ZenithOptimedia’s new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts. Mobile internet will be the third-largest advertising medium, behind television and desktop internet. Mobile advertising will grow 38% in 2016 to US$71bn, while newspaper advertising will shrink 4% to US$68bn. Mobile advertising remains the driving force behind the growth of the entire advertising market, contributing 83% of all new ad dollars between 2014 and 2017. Internet advertising to overtake television in 2018 as print continues to shrink Desktop internet advertising will continue to grow, but will lose market share for the first time this year, dropping from 19.8% of global adspend in 2014 to 19.4%. By 2017 ZenithOptimedia forecasts desktop internet to account for 19.1% of global adspend. Meanwhile mobile internet advertising’s share of the global ad market will rise from 5.7% in 2014 to 15.0% in 2017. Overall, internet advertising will account for 34.0% of global adspend in 2017, slightly behind television’s 35.9%. The market share gap between the two media will narrow from 13.3 percentage points in 2014 to 1.9 in 2017. At this rate of growth, internet advertising will overtake television in 2018. Print adspend continues to decline across most of the world, as it has done since 2008. We predict newspaper adspend will shrink by an average of 4.9% a year through to 2017, while magazine advertising will shrink by 3.2% a year. Their combined share of global adspend has fallen from 39.4% in 2007 to 19.6% this year, and we expect it to fall further to 16.7% by 2017. Global adspend to grow 4.0% in 2015 ZenithOptimedia forecasts that global adspend will grow 4.0% to reach US$554bn in 2015, and will accelerate to 5.0% growth in 2016, boosted by the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio and the US Presidential elections. Adspend will then slow down slightly in the absence of these events, growing 4.4% in 2017. Mature Markets to lead adspend growth for the first time in nine years We have reduced our forecasts for adspend growth in 2015 since our June forecast by 0.2 percentage points. There has been broad-based deceleration across the world as marketers have moderated their expectations of global economic growth. With Brazil and Russia in recession, and China slowing down, the world can no longer rely on emerging markets to set the pace of growth. We expect ‘Mature Markets’ (which we define as North America, Western Europe and Japan) to contribute more to global adspend growth this year than ‘Rising Markets’ (everywhere else), for the first time since 2006. We think this is a temporary aberration, however – Rising Markets will become the leading contributors to ad market growth again in 2016, and will increase their market share from 37.4% in 2015 to 38.8% in 2017. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1LlXYmK (link is external)

1. But Facebook says they have never granted ‘mass access’ to the NSA? The Irish High Court has found as a matter of fact, that Facebook did participate in mass surveillance in the United States and EU data is made available to US authorities (see judgement). The Irish High Court has even found that “only the naive or the credulous could really have been greatly surprised” over these forms of mass surveillance. The court further found that “that personal data transferred by companies such as Facebook Ireland to its parent company in the United States is thereafter capable of being accessed by the NSA in the course or a mass and indiscriminate surveillance of such data. Indeed, in the wake of the Snowden revelations, the available evidence presently admits of no other realistic conclusion.” Facebook had every freedom to join the procedure as a “notice party” but decided to remain silent in the procedure. This may have been a bad decision on the side of Facebook. The fact that the NSA runs mass surveillance systems and US tech firms aid these programs was also not really disputed in the procedure. Facebook typically claims the opposite in public statements (“Mark and others clearly stated that the claim was false”), but has not delivered any credible argument - let alone evidence - that it is not subject to US mass surveillance laws like e.g. § 1881a FISA. In most statements they only refer to blog posts by their CEO as evidence. In fact Facebook is very likely bound by “gag orders” and is not allowed to confirm such cooperation with US authorities. Facebook spokespersons, which make such statements, typically do not have the necessary security clearance to know about such programs themselves. 2. Isn’t there a new Safe Harbor planed? The European Commission has tried to update the current safe harbor system since the disclosures by Edward Snowden, but has met very strong resistance by the US government. While there are continuous signs that the European Commission and the United States are close to a new deal, there has so far been a number of severe delays in the process and numerous deadlines in 2014 and 2015 have expired so far without any results. It also remains questionable if an updated safe harbor would address other shortcomings of the current safe harbor system, which go beyond cases of mass surveillance. A large number of independent reviews equally identified countless shortcomings when it comes to commercial data usage of US companies under Safe harbor (e.g. the European Commission’s reviews in 2002 and 2004, reviews by multiple groups of Data Protection Authorities, like the Article 29 Working Party and the German DPAs, as well as independent researchers like the Galexia Report). In the procedure before the CJEU the plaintiff has also submitted a review (PDF) that identified the numerous shortcomings of the safe harbor system in addition to the issue of mass surveillance. Version 1 Sept 23rd 2015 There is a certain chance that an invalidation or a severe limitation of the ‘safe harbor’ by the Court will bring the ongoing discussions with the US to a whole new level. “If the Court sets the red lines, this may provide the backbone for European attempts to get proper protection for EU citizens that lacked so far. We mainly witnessed nice speeches and anger letters by our politicians – but I doubt that they impressed anyone over the Atlantic. Maybe a Court ruling that may stop certain data flows will do the trick. It is also not unlikely that the US industry will line up in Washington to get better protection for EU data to regain easier access to EU data.” 3. Isn’t there a new “Umbrella Agreement” and “Judicial Redress Bill” planed? The EU and the US have recently agreed on a new “umbrella agreement”. The umbrella agreement only covers data that was exchanged between EU and US authorities in the framework of law enforcement and not national security. Data that was exchanged between EU and US companies and later forwarded to US authorities are also not covered. The agreement has also just been presented, but it remains to be seen if will be signed. I would add that the agreement, even if it is in place would not cover access by national security authorities, which is subject to our case. The judicial redress bill is also far from being signed into law. Like the ‘umbrella agreement’ this proposed US law has a very limited scope and gives EU citizens only a very narrow protection that is far from the rights US citizens enjoy in the EU. I would also mention that it does not make the Privacy Act applicable to EU persons, as this a common misunderstanding. A leaked version of the agreement and the proposed judicial redress bill has already attracted criticism by notable individuals like the former Data Protection Commissioner of Germany, Peter Schaar (link) and EPIC (link). ---- Full article attached.

The numerous debates triggered by the increased collection and processing of personal data for various - and often unaccountable - purposes are particularly vivid at the EU level. Two interlinked, and to some extent conflicting, initiatives are relevant here: the development of EU strategies promoting a data-driven economy and the current reform of the EU personal data protection legal framework in the context of the adoption of a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In this context, and focusing on the development of Big Data practices, smart devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), this Study shows that the high degree of opacity of many contemporary data processing activities directly affects the right of the individuals to know what is being done with the data collected about them. This Study argues that the promotion of a data- driven economy should not underestimate the challenges raised for privacy and personal data protection and that strengthening the rights of digital-citizens should be the main focus of the current debates around the GDPR. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EU citizens and residents and, more generally, all individuals deserving protection as ‘data subjects’ by EU law, are directly impacted by EU strategies in the field of Big Data. Indeed, the data-driven economy poses significant challenges to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, notably in the fields of privacy and personal data protection. Big Data refers to the exponential growth both in the availability and automated use of information. Big Data comes from gigantic digital datasets held by corporations, governments and other large organisations; these are extensively analysed (hence the name ‘data analytics’) through computer algorithms. There are numerous applications of Big Data in various sectors, including healthcare, mobile communications, smart grids, traffic management, fraud detection, or marketing and retail (both on- and offline). The notion, primarily driven by economic concerns, has been largely promoted through market- led strategies and policies. Presented as an enabler of powerful analytical and predictive tools, the concept of Big Data has also raised numerous criticisms emphasising such risks as biased information, spurious correlations (associations that are statistically robust but happen only by chance), and statistical discrimination. Moreover, the promotion of Big Data as an economic driver raises significant challenges for privacy and digital rights in general. These challenges are even greater in a digital ecosystem with a proliferation of cheap sensors, numerous apps on mobile devices and an increasingly connected world that sometimes does not even require human intervention (as shown in the increasing development of the Internet of Things [IoT]). The flows of information on- and off line, shared and multiplied across computers, mobile devices, watches, SmartBands, glasses, etc., have dramatically increased the availability, storage, extraction and processing of data on a large scale. It has become increasingly difficult to track what is made of our data. This situation is complicated further by the wide variety of actors engaged in data collection and processing. The numerous debates triggered by the increased collection and processing of personal data for various – and often unaccountable - purposes are particularly vivid at the EU level. Two interlinked, and to some extent conflicting, initiatives are relevant here: the development of EU strategies promoting a data-driven economy and the current reform of the EU personal data protection legal framework, in the context of the adoption of a General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In order to address the issues at stake, the present Study provides an overview of Big Data and smart devices, outlining their technical components and uses (section 2). This section shows that many contemporary data processing activities are characterised by a high degree of opacity. This opacity directly affects the ability of individuals to know how data collected about them is used; it also hinders their capacity to assess and trust the manner in which choices are (automatically) made - whether, in other words, these choices are appropriate or fair. As regards smart devices, cheap sensors or the IoT, the pervasiveness of sensors and extensive routine data production might not be fully understood by individuals, who may be unaware of the presence of sensors and of the full spectrum of data they produce, as well as the data processing operations treating this diverse data. If Big Data, smart devices and IoT are often promoted as key enablers of market predictions and economic/social dynamics, data processing raises the question of who controls one’s data. ---- For the full study, see the attached document.

CHICAGO and AUSTIN, Texas — April 21, 2015 — Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), a global leader in innovative solutions and services for consumer, retail and over-the-counter health care companies, announced today the launch of IRI Shopper Marketing Cloud™, expected to be the world’s largest integrated consumer, purchase and media data set built inside IRI’s leading Liquid Data™ technology platform and powered by its recently announced Q-IRI™ prescriptive analytics engine for comprehensive planning, targeting, activating and measuring by fully linking media to store-level or online purchase. “We are at the beginning of a consumer buying revolution, one that will change how consumers shop and make decisions in fundamental ways over the next decade,” said Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer, IRI. “IRI is focused on transforming the entire shopper journey by helping companies grow and by helping consumers make better buying choices. This integrated data, analytics and technology will help manufacturers and retailers unlock new pockets of growth and do it faster than ever before.” Arming CPG companies with an incredibly powerful platform for growth, IRI Shopper Marketing Cloud encompasses the whole portfolio of data sets and insights, focusing on media, social and purchase. Media Data Sets To ensure the most comprehensive media data, IRI has expanded its ongoing collaboration with Rentrak and comScore to move beyond tracking ad exposure and include full integration of cross-media TV and digital campaign tracking powered by IRI’s ProScores™purchase propensity models. Social Data Sets IRI also is expanding the ability to understand and leverage the impact of social sentiment on consumer activation and sales activities, and will be announcing an exclusive partnership that will guide CPG companies through targeting, activating and measuring campaign efforts. Consumer and Media Consumption Data Sets Leveraging valued relationships with retailers, IRI has continued to make huge investments to improve the ability to track purchases online and offline at a granular level. Working closely with retailers to help them connect with consumers, IRI Shopper Marketing Cloud offers enhanced performance by linking the same media and social data to retailers’ frequent shopper databases for unique insights and in-store activation. It also tracks what media consumers have been exposed to and what products they have purchased. --- Full article available at http://bit.ly/1WdoMZI (link is external)

The FTC requested that comments for the upcoming October 30, 2015 workshop on lead generation be submitted by September 20th so that issues could be addressed during the sessions. USPIRG and CDD submitted initial comments, which are attached below and also summarized. One of our findings from a recent analysis of the online "lead gen" marketplace was that digital industry leaders--including Google and Facebook--engage and support online lead generation in ways that raise substantive consumer protection concerns. USPIRG and CDD have been working for the last several years to encourage policymakers to rein-in lead generatio activities, especially those that play a role promoting financial products that can be expensive and harmful to consumers. We have written background papers on lead generation and payday loans, its use by for-profit colleges, and how Hispanics are targeted, for example. At its workshop, follow-up report and thru new enforcement activities, the FTC needs to analyze and address how contemporary online lead generation embodies a panoply of applications and tactics to acquire, use, and often share or sell a person’s personal data. Lead generation is no longer the simple process of encouraging a consumer to fill out an online form. Today, online “lead gen,” as it is called, incorporates the use of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, search engines, mobile phones, apps, geo-location, native advertising, email, sentiment mining, data-driven audience buying (programmatic), user “scoring” methods, attribution analysis for measurement, and a network of data brokers providing instantaneous identity and other sensitive information. The commission, in its workshop, report, and follow-up activity, should focus on the leaders of the digital data marketing industry—starting with Facebook and Google but including many others—and its use of lead generation. While there are likely many “bad” lead generator actors, as the commission’s enforcement actions have already identified, we believe that the most significant threats to consumers overall arise from the growing and now endemic use of powerful, non-transparent lead-generation techniques, especially for financial products, by the leading companies in the marketplace. Unless it is subjected to some floor of enforceable consumer protection—including but not limited to transparency and real consumer choices to avoid it—lead generation will become—if it has not already—a patently unfair system of consumer manipulation and control. Few consumers know that when they are encouraged to provide data about themselves—when they seek a home, college or auto loan, for example—that the supposedly informational website promising attractive rates and up-to-date information is really in the business on capturing their personal information to be used or sold as a lead. Online lead-generation techniques are integrated into the digital medium, with many interconnected applications fostering ongoing data collection for lead-related profiling and targeted services (e.g., search, social media, financial digital marketing). The commission should note that the leading business segments for online marketing revenues and expenditures—retail, financial services, and the automotive sectors—significantly use online lead-generation tactics. So do the leaders in the digital media business—including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, for example. The commission, in its workshop, report and follow-up activity, should focus on the leaders of the digital data marketing industry and their use of lead generation