Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
A series of Instagram ads run by the privacy-positive platform Signal got the messaging app booted from the former’s ad platform, according to a blog post Signal published on Tuesday. The ads were meant to show users the bevy of data that Instagram and its parent company Facebook collects on users, by… targeting those users…
Heads up, fellow T-Mobile customers: You might want to take a look at your mobile carrier’s privacy policy. As by the Wall Street Journal, the company’s latest update to its privacy policy is set to automatically enroll paying phone subscribers into an ad-targeting program that will see their data shared with unnumbered advertisers starting next…
Facebook, which along with Google accounts for around 60% of advertiser spending online, has knowingly built some of its astonishing success on incorrect data, newly unsealed court documents allege. Incidentally, this may pose a problem for a business which generates of its revenue from selling ads. In a nutshell, this class action suit, which was…
Among all of the antitrust probes facing Google right now, the case dropped on Wednesday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stands out for a few reasons. First, it focuses on the tech giant’s dominance in digital ads, rather than focusing on search the way that the Justice Department and more than 30 states have…
Like many advertisers, Fidelity Investments wants to avoid advertising online near controversial content. The Boston-based financial-services company has a lengthy blacklist of words it considers off-limits. If one of those words is in an article’s headline, Fidelity won’t place an ad there. Its list earlier this year, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, contained more…
Google is the dominant player in online advertising, one reason the U.S. Justice Department is laying the groundwork for potential antitrust action against the tech giant. It has a 37% share of the $130 billion U.S. digital ad market, according to research firm eMarketer, but understanding Google’s full clout requires a deeper look at the sector. Google…
A new study suggests suggest publishers only get about 4% more revenue for an ad impression that has a cookie enabled than for one that doesn’t. Photo: Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press May 29, 2019 5:59 p.m. ET Are creepy advertisements really necessary to support the free web? A new academic study suggests they aren’t. Behavioral advertising,…
Private-equity firm Great Hill Partners has agreed to acquire Gizmodo Media Group from Univision Communications Inc., the companies said, ending the Spanish-language broadcaster’s foray into English-language digital media. James Spanfeller, the former chief executive of Forbes.com and president of consumer magazines at digital publisher Ziff Davis, will become chief executive of G/O Media Inc., a…
Talks continued over the weekend to avert a programming blackout that would affect more than 24 million customers of AT&T’s DirecTV, U-verse and WatchTV services. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg News Updated March 24, 2019 2:29 p.m. ET Carriage deals between pay-TV distributors and programmers typically hinge on price. In the negotiations between AT&T Inc. T…
Facebook Inc. has spent the better part of a year telling its users, Congress and the readers of this paper that we’re in charge of our personal data and the ads we see. The network has streamlined its privacy settings, shared more details about how data is used and highlighted how its ad controls work. If we take advantage of all these privacy controls, it shouldn’t still feel as…