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Showing posts from February, 2019

WTF is a data clean room?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Advertisers’ attempts to break down data’s walled gardens have found a second wind. The emergence of so-called data clean rooms, safe spaces where insights gleaned from the walled gardens are commingled with first-party data from advertisers for measurement and attribution, is gathering pace as media trading becomes more addressable. As much as these safe spaces are in demand, they are fraught with adoption issues. Here’s what you need to know: What is a data clean room? Data clean rooms are places where walled gardens like Google, Facebook and Amazon share aggregated rather than customer-level data with advertisers, while still exerting strict controls. First-party data from the advertiser is then poured into the same space to see how it matches up with the aggregated data from the platforms. From there, advertisers can see how the different data sets match up, using any inconsistencies between the two to determine whether they’re over-serving ads to the sam

Comic for 2019.03.01

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J New Cyanide and Happiness Comic https://ift.tt/2EEO3eE

The Rundown: Brand safety outrage is wearing thin

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Brand safety has been on every marketers’ lips for the past couple years, as concerns about ads showing up in undesirable places moved from adult content, to fake news, on to terrorism-related videos on YouTube, and now pedophilia and child abuse. But there are signs the industry narrative is evolving from simple outrage to a more nuanced and sensible view. Despite their incentives to skewer major platforms such as Facebook and Google whenever they are given a chance, marketers and agencies are now publicly being more pragmatic about the challenge. There is no such thing as brand safety on the Internet, and advertisers are just going to have to be OK with that. This article is behind the Digiday+ paywall. The post The Rundown: Brand safety outrage is wearing thin appeared first on Digiday . https://ift.tt/2EpWrgD

In the wake of scandals, platforms are policing audience segmentation

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Facebook is consistently under scrutiny for nefarious ad targeting on its platform. But while abuse on Facebook and the company’s reactive steps  to prevent it may make the most headlines, other digital platforms including Foursquare and Twitter have also been taking steps to clean up their audience segmentation and targeting capabilities to prevent misuse. For example, Foursquare launched audience segmentation in its self-serve platform on Jan. 22. Prior that release, the location platform only worked directly with select advertisers on creating custom campaigns. Ahead of the launch, Foursquare had each of the segments reviewed by its ethics committee, a cross-functional group of engineers, product, sales and legal. “In the nature of the self-service model, you’re handing [all the targeting] over to someone else so it was important for us, for a number reasons, to be very thoughtful of what segments to work. We want to make sure we’re honoring the trust we fee

In-house may have a silver lining for agencies: Insights from the Digiday Media Buying Summit

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J These are difficult times for agencies. They are dealing with a raft of business model challenges and new competition from consultancies — and their own clients taking more of their marketing functions in-house. On top of that, agency staffers say they’re increasingly overworked and underpaid, and many are looking for roles at clients, consultancies and technology firms instead. Agency executives gathered in Nashville on Feb. 20 – 22 to discuss these issues and more. Here’s what attendees learned: This article is behind the Digiday+ paywall. The post In-house may have a silver lining for agencies: Insights from the Digiday Media Buying Summit appeared first on Digiday . https://ift.tt/2EkmYMy

Spain’s top soccer league La Liga is building a U.S. media business

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J The European soccer league that’s home to Real Madrid and Barcelona is making a bigger media play in the U.S. — just a few years ahead of new rights deals that could see the league draw greater interest and revenue from TV and digital distributors. LaLiga North America, a media joint venture formed last year between Spain’s top soccer league and sports marketing firm Relevent, is building out a media business that includes daily video programming for social platforms, long-form productions to license to streaming platforms and TV networks, live fan events, support for local soccer communities across the U.S. and, eventually, even a regular-season La Liga game held in the U.S. All told, the joint venture plans to invest around $10 million in its first three years, with the intention of building a media business that includes revenue from ads and sponsorships, content sales, match ticket sales and media rights. “We want to help grow La Liga in the U.S.,” said Bo

Why VCs still see growth opportunities in sports digital media plays

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Venture capital firms might have soured on digital media companies over the past few years, but many sports media companies continue to draw backing. In the past four months, three very different kinds of sports-focused publishers have announced substantial funding rounds. Last week, The Chernin Group-owned Action Network, which focuses on the growing world of sports betting, announced a $17.5 million Series B round. On Feb. 21, the distributed video startup Overtime raised $23 million as it looks to build a bigger content business. And late last year, The Athletic raised nearly $40 million in a Series B round led by Founders Fund, with contributions from Comcast Ventures and other investors. Those bets are a far cry from the nine-figure sums that startups such as BuzzFeed and Vice gathered from investors just a few years ago. But investors feel that sports, with its engaged, loyal fan bases, might offer the right foundation for media businesses that are diver

Retail Briefing: Amazon ups its fights against fakes with Project Zero

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Not a Digiday+ member? You can get the Retail Briefing delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe  here . Amazon’s in the news this week for coming under fire for, and cracking down on, fakes. This article is behind the Digiday+ paywall. The post Retail Briefing: Amazon ups its fights against fakes with Project Zero appeared first on Digiday . https://ift.tt/2T9KdmO

Amazon’s next ad move: AmazonFresh ‘sponsored products’

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https://ift.tt/2tGNj2m Amazon’s $3.5 billion ad business keeps growing. In its latest expansion, Amazon has started to run Sponsored Products ads on its AmazonFresh e-commerce platform in the U.S. According to an email that Amazon has sent to ad buyers announcing the news, ads for AmazonFresh products will appear within Amazon’s regular search results and product details pages as well as within AmazonFresh’s search results. The Sponsored Products ads for AmazonFresh items are the same as the version already available for non-AmazonFresh products, which may make them easier for advertisers to adopt, according to Rina Yashayeva, vp of marketplace strategy at Stella Rising, an agency that specializes in Amazon advertising. The ads can be targeted based on keywords, and advertisers will pay when people click on the ads, even if they do not purchase the product. The ads can appear within Amazon’s regular search results and product details pages as well as within AmazonFresh’s search resu

Channel 4 expands its ad-free subscription streaming service

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https://ift.tt/2H9osMs British commercial broadcaster Channel 4 has expanded its subscription on-demand service after running tests last November. The broadcaster — home to shows like “The Great British Bake Off” and “Shipwrecked” — has 18 million registered users to its video on demand service, All 4. Now, more registered users have the option to pay £3.99 ($5.31) to watch shows without ads before it decides to extend the service, All 4 +, over the coming months. “We’re getting serious about a paid upgrade to the free service,” said Richard Davidson-Houston, head of All 4. According to the broadcaster, 2018 was the most successful year for All 4 since it launched in 2006, with views up 25 percent year over year. Broadcasters have enjoyed buoyant linear ad revenues to sustain them through trying times in digital media. But increasingly, they’re diversifying revenue streams to manage the slowing growth in linear ad revenue, while online video ad revenue is increasingly being snatche

Why traditional retailers struggle to figure out subscription services

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Today, JCPenney is pulling the cord on the men’s apparel subscription service it tested in partnership with subscription startup Bombfell. The service, which was live for two years, allowed subscribers to receive a monthly selection of clothes from JCPenney’s “Big and Tall” brands. The program was priced similar to Bombfell’s service, which charges a $20 styling fee, but JCPenney customers paid less for each item if they decided to keep more. JCPenney and Bombfell sent emails to affected customers two weeks ago. News that the service was ending first broke Wednesday . Encouraged by the popularity of styling services like Bombfell, Stitch Fix and Rent the Runway, retailers like JCPenney have proven eager to develop their own services that allow customers to receive clothes on a recurring basis, either via subscription or rental services. American Eagle started  piloting a subscription rental service  this year. Express also launched a rental subscription service

Worth

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Strike 3's Lawyer Sanctioned By Court, Excuses His Actions By Claiming He Can't Make Technology Work

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J When it comes to the art of copyright trolling, part of that art necessarily pretends that all potential victims of the trolling effort are assumed to be masters of both technology and copyright law, such that they are both responsible for what goes on with their internet connections and that no action they take could possibly be a forgivable accident. These assumptions operate across the victim spectrum without regard to the the victim being of advanced age or incredibly young, or even whether the victim is sick or lacks the mental capacity to carry out the supposed infringement. The assumption in just about every case is that the accused is fully responsible. Which is the standard that then should be applied to Strike 3 Holding's lawyer, Lincoln Bandlow, who had to go to court to explain why he and his firm failed to provide a status update on 25 cases , despite the court ordering he do so, and was forced to explain why he thinks the court shouldn't ju

These Australian twins are the second 'semi-identical' pair ever reported

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https://ift.tt/2Xu8TF6 Health It all started with two sperm and one egg. A set of Australian twins, now four years old, are, indeed, not identical. But they’re not fraternal, either. They’re what the medical community calls semi-identical,… https://ift.tt/2TngZQD

Two Months Later, News Orgs Are Finally 'Allowed' To Report On Top Vatican Official's Child Molestation Conviction

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Back in December, we wrote about the insane attack on free speech perpetrated by the Australian court system, barring anyone from reporting on the fact that "third most powerful person in the Vatican," its CFO, George Pell, had been convicted of molesting choir boys in Australia in the 1990s. Only a very small number of news sites reported on this at all, out of fear of the Australian government going after them. Even the NY Times (of all sites) only published the story in its physical paper, and not online, to avoid the possibility that readers down under might see the story. We even got some pushback from some people for publishing the story, with them saying it was necessary to make sure Pell's second trial on similar charges was "fair." Of course, we've handled these issues differently in the US for decades, in a way that seems to work just fine: the press is free to report, but jurors are restricted from researching or reading

Deception & Trust: A Deep Look At Deep Fakes

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J With recent focus on disinformation and “fake news,” new technologies used to deceive people online have sparked concerns among the public. While in the past, only an expert forger could create realistic fake media, deceptive techniques using the latest research in machine-learning allow anyone with a smartphone to generate high-quality fake videos, or “deep fakes.” Like other forms of disinformation, deep fakes can be designed to incite panic , sow distrust in political institutions, or produce myriad other harmful outcomes. Because of these potential harms, lawmakers and others have begun expressing concerns about deep-fake technology. Underlying these concerns is the superficially reasonable assumption that deep fakes represent an unprecedented development in the ecosystem of disinformation, largely because deep-fake technology can create such realistic-looking content. Yet this argument assumes that the quality of the content carries the most weight in

Future AMD GPUs May Support Variable Rate Shading

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https://ift.tt/2T9aUI8 A recently published AMD patent revealed that AMD has been working on implementing variable rate shading technology into its GPUs for at least the past two years. Although it hasn't been confirmed yet, the technology may be available for AMD's Navi. https://ift.tt/2Ej5f89

These 500mg CBD gummies are 25 percent off right now

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Andrew Wheeler is officially the head of the EPA

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https://ift.tt/2NA2Muj Environment His time as acting administrator has been troubling. After several months of Acting Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler is now confirmed by the Senate. https://ift.tt/2NyPWMW

These mice sing their little hearts out—and that's good for neuroscience

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https://ift.tt/2Ts4HpY Animals What singing rodents can teach us about human conversation. The words “singing mice” might conjure up memories of Cinderelly’s —er, Cinderella’s pals and a squeaky yet exquisitely harmonized Christmas song sung by another trio of… https://ift.tt/2tKv24a

Turkish Group Using Phishing Emails to Hijack Popular Instagram Profiles

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J In some cases, attackers have demanded ransom, nude photos/videos of victims in exchange for stolen account, Trend Micro says. https://ift.tt/2NAbHMj

Solving Security: Repetition or Redundancy?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J To effectively defend against today's risks and threats, organizations must examine their failings as well as their successes. https://ift.tt/2GRwxGe

Mozilla Says Australia's Compelled Access Law Could Turn Staff There Into 'Insider Threats'

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Despite unanimous warnings from experts that it was a really bad idea, the Australian government went ahead and passed its law enabling compelled access to encrypted devices and communications. Apparently, the powers have already been used . Because of the way the Australian government rammed the legislation through without proper scrutiny, the country's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has commenced a review of the new law . That's the good news. The bad news is that Andrew Hastie, the Chair of the Committee, still thinks fairy tales are true : I note with the House the concerns raised by some stakeholders in the tech sector about these laws, including in today's press. I welcome the ongoing contribution from these stakeholders as the committee continues its review. I note, however, that the legislation as passed prohibits the creation of so-called back doors. Companies cannot be required to create systemic weaknesses in

Hollywood Accounting Rears Its Ugly Head Again: Fox's 'False Testimony' And 'Aversion For The Truth' Leads To $179M Fine

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J For years, we've talked about bullshit Hollywood Accounting , in which the big studios make boatloads of money on films and TV shows while declaring publicly that those works never made a dime in profit. As we've discussed , in its simplest terms, the studios set up a separate "corporation" for the film or TV project, which then it charges massive fees -- and the sole purpose of those fees seem to be to send all the money to the studio, while claiming that the film or TV project is "losing money" and thus they don't have to pay out any profits to the actual creative people. Remember this the next time the MPAA goes around talking about how its mission is to "protect creators." Over at the Hollywood Reporter, Eriq Gardner has the latest bombshell example of Hollywood Accounting, which has resulted in Fox being told by an arbitrator to pay $179 million for repeated and obviously intentional dishonesty in reporting on th

Daily Deal: Clip Studio Paint PRO

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https://ift.tt/2StYq8U Clip Studio Paint PRO , the successor to Manga Studio, is used by more than 4 million illustrators, comic artists, and creators around the world to create groundbreaking work. This new and improved software offers better-specialized features for drawing comics and cartoons and has improved coloring features to offer a complete suite of creative tools. You have access to more than 10,000 free downloadable brushes, tones, 3D models and other content, and it has Photoshop integration. It's on sale for $30. Note: The Techdirt Deals Store is powered and curated by StackCommerce. A portion of all sales from Techdirt Deals helps support Techdirt. The products featured do not reflect endorsements by our editorial team. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story https://ift.tt/2C06etI

The Impossibility Of Content Moderation Extends To The People Tasked With Doing Content Moderation

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J For years, now, we've been writing about the general impossibility of moderating content at scale on the internet. And, yet, lots of people keep demanding that various internet platforms "do more." Often those demands to do more come from politicians and regulators who are threatening much stricter regulations or even fines if companies fail to wave a magic wand and make "bad" content disappear. The big companies have felt compelled to staff up to show the world that they're taking this issue seriously. It's not difficult to find the headlines: Facebook pledges to double its 10,000-person safety and security staff and Google to hire thousands of moderators after outcry over YouTube abuse videos . Most of the demands for more content moderation come from people who claim to be well-meaning, hoping to protect innocent viewers (often "think of the children!") from awful, awful content. But, of course, it also means making