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Mobile Marketing

VOOH Buyers Guide Finds CPMs Competitive With Broadcast Prime-Time TV

5/25/2021

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VOOH Buyers Guide Finds CPMs Competitive With Broadcast Prime-Time TV

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Digital video out-of-home (VOOH) ads have advertising cost per thousand (CPM) ranges that are competitive with prime-time broadcast TV, and better than digital options like mobile and desktop video advertising. That's one of the data points that can be found in the Out-of-Home Advertising Association of America's (OAAA) just-released "Digital Video Out-of-Home Buyers Guide." "Pricing is always a consideration throughout the entire VOOH plan-buy cycle, and may dictate the targeting approach, publisher, and venue types, but ultimately will impact the ROI return on investment analysis," the guide reads, adding, "VOOH is typically purchased based upon the cost per thousand (CPM)."



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May 25, 2021 at 01:23PM
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OAAA Buyer's Guide: It's The Video Stupid

5/25/2021

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OAAA Buyer's Guide: It's The Video, Stupid

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In a major push to equate video ads in digital out-of-home venues with linear TV, OTT and streaming, the Out-of-Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) today is releasing its first “Buyer’s Guide” devoted to video advertising.

“While linear TV has traditionally been seen as the advertising stronghold since its inception, the rapid rise of mobile, digital, streaming, and OTT has unlocked new channels and new ways of thinking,” Dentsu Media Americas CEO Doug Rozen writes in the introduction to the guide, providing a tacit endorsement for guide, which is largely a promotional pitch for out-of-home media outlets.

It also appears to be another push by the OAAA to encroach on the turf of other trade bodies, in this case, the DPAA (Digital Place-Based Advertising Association), which has long been the primary association organizing digital out-of-home video advertising industry initiatives.

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It also follows pushes by the OAAA to set industry standards that would normally involve other bodies, including last week’s release of advertising measurement standards that appeared to undermine the out-of-home ad industry’s long-standing currency, Geopath, as well as mobile measurement standards for digital out-of-home media released earlier this month that were made without the involvement of other relevant trade bodies.





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May 25, 2021 at 07:41AM
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What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy

5/25/2021

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What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy

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Stand-up comedians need to make a connection with their audience. It starts with getting attention, then stoking interest, developing a rapport, and ultimately provoking a reaction. 

To do it right, you need empathy, knowledge of your audience, creativity...oh, and a spark that makes you unique.

B2B marketers: Does any of the above sound familiar? I’ve been a professional marketer and an amateur comedian for over a decade, and it’s surprising how much the two inform each other. 

Here are just a few lessons that B2B marketers can learn from standup.

Keep It Real

In the early 19th century, standup comedy depended on wordplay and absurdism. For example: “Take my wife...please!” or “The other night I shot an elephant in my pajamas… how he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.” 

As the art form of standup has evolved, however, personal observations with a unique point of view (more on that later) have become more popular. Here’s a classic bit from Ellen Degeneres as she dissects the minutiae of her life:

For marketers, keeping it real means being honest and sincere with your audience. It could even mean not being afraid to show flaws or own up to mistakes. Look for ways to bring the audience behind the scenes to meet the people behind the brand. 

I like the way Stacey Marx from AT&T Business brings her personal life into her content, as in this post, "Gold Medal Advice: SMB Lessons from a World-Class Coach." The personal touch elevates the content and makes it unique. 

Adjust to Your Audience

Telling a marketer to know their audience is like telling a comedian to… well… know their audience. It’s not a radical new technique; it’s part of the toolkit. At the same time, it’s easy to think of your own culture, background and thought processes as universal. That’s one of the reasons comedy can be so hard to translate. 

One famous example is when Jimmy Carter told a joke to break the ice at a college in Japan. He was gratified when, after a brief translation from his interpreter, the crowd erupted in laughter! It wasn’t until later that the interpreter confessed that what he said was, “The president has told a funny story. Please laugh.”

For marketers and comedians alike, the only way to truly get in your audience’s head is to do the research. Putting out the same message for audiences with different cultural backgrounds is a path fraught with peril. 

This Jerry Seinfeld bit — a superbly clever American Express commercial — illustrates the point precisely: 

Alternate Storytelling with Quick Jabs

John Mulaney and Mitch Hedberg are two of my favorite comedians, and for wildly different reasons. John is the master at telling longer stories, taking a few minutes to set the scene, not rushing to a punchline. Here’s an example (with some strong language, be warned):

On the other side of the spectrum, Mitch Hedberg is the undisputed master of the one-liner. “I don't have a girlfriend. But I do know a woman who'd be mad at me for saying that.” Or, slightly longer, “One time, this guy handed me a picture, he said ‘Here's a picture of me when I was younger.’ Every picture is of you when you were younger! ‘Here's a picture of me when I'm older.’ Woah, lemme see that camera.”

Just as there’s room in comedy for the Mulaneys and Hedbergs, there’s room in marketing for both long-form narratives and short, punchy taglines. Invest the same energy into each one, and you’ll resonate with a wider audience.

Develop a Unique Voice

In the '80s, there was a brief stand-up fad of weird, extreme voices. For example…

Thankfully, it was a short-lived trend, but it does illustrate how memorable a unique voice can be. Anyone who has heard Bobcat Goldthwait, Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Tenuta or Sam Kinison will never mistake them for someone else. On the flip side, the junkyard of comedy is strewn with the careers of bland comedians who were indistinguishable from each other.

In marketing, it’s easy to slide into a kind of homogeneous, safe, “professional-sounding” corporate speak. Don’t make waves, use — I mean, utilize -- the right jargon, and you can avoid offending anyone. The problem is, you’re also unlikely to avoid affecting anyone, too. Make your brand voice personable, lively and unique, and you will have something no competitor can copy.

Serious Business Can Be Funny

All of the above can help you as a marketer address, connect with, and affect your audience. But there’s one other thing that comedians do that marketers should do more often: Be funny. There’s plenty of room in B2B marketing for actual comedy, and those who do it well tend to be rewarded. And hey, if Intel can do it, so can you.

Want more B2B marketing tips? Check out our report on the State of B2B Influencer Marketing.

The post What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.





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May 25, 2021 at 05:36AM
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Hubble Tests TikTok & the "EYES" Have It!

5/24/2021

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Hubble Tests TikTok & the "EYES" Have It!

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The sheltering-at-home lifestyle saw consumers watching more video than ever before, including expanding their viewing habits to new platforms like TikTok. Direct-to-consumer contact lens brand, Hubble Contacts, decided they didn't want to be beholding to just FaceBook and took advantage of the new trend. Hubble's Senior Marketing & Creative Director, Dan Rosen, shares how he tested the short-form mobile video platform and discovered a new audience, success and scale.



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May 24, 2021 at 02:19PM
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Flowers Foods Richards Group Develop New Sales Attribution Model

5/24/2021

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Flowers Foods, Richards Group Develop New Sales Attribution Model

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Flowers Foods, parent brand of Nature’s Own, Wonder, and Tastykake is sharing insights from a first-to-market program that allows for direct attribution of product sales to upper-funnel display and contextual video impressions.

The campaign was spearheaded by Flowers Foods agency partner The Richards Group along with Catalina and Amobee that enabled the agency to attribute sales from its digital media spend without the costly modeling by directly tying Catalina’s first-party data to ad campaigns.

“Many advertisers invest in very costly attribution models, but many CPG brands don’t have the budgets to afford this type of research,” explains Mary Price, media group head, Richards Group. ”Attributing media directly to sales is always tricky, especially when sales are brick and mortar and not online.”

At its core, this attribution product ensured Richards Group clients’ brand digital ads were tagged with Catalina’s proprietary pixel. Shopper ad engagement triggers a pixel ID match that anonymously captures buyer data. As such, this pixel tracks UPCs and SKUs to reveal buyer behavior patterns (trial, repeat, or new buyer).

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Previously, the data was implemented manually within the tagging structure. Now that Catalina will be directly integrated as part of Amobee’s larger in-flight optimization (IFO), all the data and optimizations will be automated within the process, enabling Flowers Foods and The Richards Group to track offline performance in real time.

“Other solutions measure against a specific retailer this solution is able to aggregate sales data from multiple retailers allowing for a clear measurement of digital effectiveness against in-store sales,” says David Lee, programmatic lead, Richards Group. “Additionally, most solutions are historically reporting output only while this product operates in real time allowing for media buying to be optimized on the fly by [the agency].”

To further validate this real-time attribution, the agency concurrently ran a traditional “lift study” using Catalina’s panel along with receipt and mobile data from partnerships with mass, grocery, convenience, and drug retail channels as the targeting data set. Audiences are selected based on historical brand and/or category purchases, with only a portion of an audience exposed to the ads.

Then the exposed group is matched to the best subset of the unexposed group. With a control established, lift is determined by evaluating the difference between the groups.

All Flowers Foods brands experienced positive results with significant return on ad spending from this program, the company said.

Looking forward, The RIchards Group expects to use this model for other CPG clients as well as a case study for new business development because the agency is now directly attributing a sales increase to its brand awareness digital media.

 

 





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May 24, 2021 at 11:50AM
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Pixalate Debuts CTV-Mobile 'Trust Index'

5/24/2021

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Pixalate Debuts CTV-Mobile 'Trust Index'

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With ad fraud, viewability and other issues impacting connected TV and mobile platforms, Pixalate, the worldwide ad fraud/marketing research company, has launched a “trust” index.

The “Publisher Trust Index” uses algorithms to measure metrics, including brand safety, invalid traffic (IVT, or ad fraud), programmatic reach and viewability. It is a MRC-accredited ad fraud measurement company.

“CTV and mobile apps remain the fastest-growing channels for programmatic advertising even as ad fraud eats around 25% of spend,” the company says.

When it comes to TV-focused apps/platforms, Hulu, fuboTV, Philo, Univision Now and NewsOn head the top 100 rankings on the Roku Channel Store. The top five for Amazon Fire TV Channel Store were Philo, Pluto TV, CNNgo, fuboTV and Sling TV.

It says the top connected TV supply-side platforms (SSP) going through Roku, in terms of its “seller trust index” include FreeWheel, Magnite, Unruly, Verizon Media, Index Exchange, EMX, PubMatic, InMobi, Triple Lift and Open X.

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Other top SSPs include Xandr Monetize and Google Ad Exchange.

Much of the same SSP companies are also high on the list for the Amazon FireTV platform, with Magnite, FreeWheel, EMX, Unruly, OpenX, Xandr Monetize, Index Exchange and PubMatic taking top spots.

Other research has Pixalate saying the top five connected U.S TV devices are: Roku, Amazon, Samsung, Vizio, Apple TV.

Pixalete says those with the biggest global reach on the Roku store include Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Pluto TV, Tubi, HGTV Go, Food Network Go, HappyKids, Vudu, JW Broadcasting and Plex.





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May 24, 2021 at 11:36AM
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How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content

5/24/2021

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How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content

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B2B Community of Influence with Content

B2B Community of Influence with Content One of the most compelling scenarios for B2B marketers to build content and community is through a combination user generated content (UGC) and strategic content collaborations. To do this, many B2B brands will initiate ongoing social media content and engagement programs to stimulate dialog with customers, community and influencers to build essential relationships. With B2B marketing shifting to digital first, there is more demand for content than ever, but there are also resource challenges with the need to continuously create new content. At the same time traditional social media and content marketing can have trust issues if the brand isn’t engaging with the community or the right influencers on a regular basis. A content marketing focused solution that solves for both of those challenges that also helps build community and influence for B2B brands can be found through participation marketing - aka, user generated content in the form of content collaborations with external influencers, brand community and customers. As brands participate in social communities, asking and answering questions, engaging customers and sharing content, numerous opportunities exist to involve the community with content creation. Crowdsourcing content with the different audiences of a brand helps create new, meaningful content as well as providing an opportunity to use the act of content collaboration as a way to build relationships, community and influence. When you make a relevant ask to contribute content and then use the resulting content to create mutual credibility and exposure for the contributors, the experience can drive deeper engagement and organic advocacy amongst the influential voices your customers trust. Like all B2B marketing tactics, there are pros and cons for a crowdsourced approach to content. Some of the pros include:
  • User generated content is trusted
  • Contributors have an interest in helping promote the content
  • UGC provides more content for search engines
  • UGC provides more information sources for prospects & customers
  • UGC publishing allows for critical feedback about products and services
  • UGC publishing provides tools for brand evangelists
  • UGC facilitates brand conversations within the marketplace
Of course there are a few cons too:
  • Resources are needed for oversight and moderation
  • Who owns the content?
  • Where is the content published?
  • What is the value exchange for contributors? If paid, it could hurt content credibility
The good news is that most of the cons can be mitigated with good communications, oversight and process. From a practical application standpoint, here are a few examples how content can be crowdsourced and repurposed 1. Interviews. Asking other people questions is one of the most basic ways to crowdsource content. There are a number of ways to implement such an approach according to the desired outcome. Asking the community for suggestions of who to interview and what questions to ask is a great way to involve people in the process. Interviewing industry thought leaders provides the brand’s audience with unique content and creates a positive association between the “brandividual” and the company. Be sure to empathize with thought leaders and their busy schedules. It will often be far more effective to ask one question of ten famous people than ten questions of one person. When you do that, you’ve made it easy for each person to answer and have also multiplied the number of potential influencers that will help promote the finished product. 2. Social Q & A – Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks can provide very useful platforms to present B2B focused questions and attract answers from a variety of people for use in your content project. Of course, your intent needs to be clear and permission for reuse should be obtained before republishing. Those familiar with the Q & A communities can word questions to attract replies from specific influentials who might not otherwise respond to a content participation pitch via email. 3. Contests Resulting in Content – Examples of contests where consumers produce their own videos or share images abound on the social web. Community members or influencers could be invited to create videos, blog posts or other media as a way to "enter" the contest run by a B2B brand. Entries hosted on the respective participant publishing channels would link back to the contest home and then the top 10 entries could be compiled into a highlight video or ebook according to the format used. 4. Comment Feedback Loop – One of the most meaningful ways for a community to engage with a brand is through comments made on social networks about a brand, in reaction to brand content or topics of mutual interest. Soliciting the community of readers to participate in a dialog by commenting can result in content that is more engaging and specific to what the audience is interested in. Brands can then recognize commenters by drawing attention to the “best of” comments in separate blog or social media post, or as we do it at our agency, on our TopRank Marketing Newsletter. 5. Print or eBook Authoring by Community – Reaching out to industry experts to share their insights as part of a larger project can be a very effective method for crowdsourcing content. Author Michael Miller did this with “Online Marketing Heroes” of which I was a part many years ago. He interviewed 25 successful marketers and the result of those interviews became a print book. Another commonly used format of crowdsourcing ebook content involves creating an outline for an ebook with portions like the premise, key points and conclusion reserved for the brand point of view and allocating specific sections for contributions for subject matter experts - industry influencers, customers, and key opinion leaders. Through progressive content collaboration experiences that result in content that is simultaneously useful to customers and great visibility for contributors, B2B brands can develop a community of influence that helps
  • Relieve some of the pressure of ongoing content creation
  • Creates content that is trusted and hyper relevant to audiences
  • Builds credibility for the brand by association with the influencers who contributed
  • Develops mutually valuable relationships with trusted voices in the industry
  • Inspire organic brand advocacy on the topics engaged
While there are many upsides when done well, it's important to know that it's possible to over rely on a community for content creation too, so don’t overdo it. Also, genuine recognition inspires better work and can motivate participants to share future crowdsourced content more enthusiastically than something that is more transactional. As you look at the social networks, communities, prospects, customers and influencers that make up the ecosystem of information sources that are important to your brand, think about the gaps of information that exist in your industry that could be filled with user and influencer generated content. Looking beyond the fundamental benefit of content creation for marketing, even greater opportunities exist when the content collaboration experience helps build genuine relationships with community and industry voices that your customers trust.

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May 24, 2021 at 08:48AM
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In First Brand Campaign Willow Declares Independence For Nursing Moms

5/24/2021

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In First Brand Campaign, Willow Declares Independence For Nursing Moms

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Willow, the wearable mobile breast pump, is introducing its first-ever brand campaign. Based on a bold "Declaration of Independence," the effort is meant to be a strong show of support for an army of stressed-out, lactating moms.

"We've all seen the studies on how hard the pandemic has been on working moms," says Sarah O'Leary, chief marketing officer for the San Francisco-based company. "And we know the stress and aggravation of traditional pumping is one reason new moms choose not to go back to work. So the idea behind Willow is to bring them the best technology and try to change the conversation about motherhood."

Willow, which won awards at CES when introduced several years ago, costs $499, more than competitive products. But the hands-free devices -- the two pumps tuck right inside a bra -- free women from the electrical cords and dangling bottles of traditional pumps. Using an app, Willow tracks the amount of milk expressed, which goes directly into self-contained bags.

"We declare ourselves free from being told to hide our bodies, nurse out of sight, stay at home, get back to work, fit into your perceptions of what a real mother is, free of your judgment," the copy reads. "This is our freedom to be a person as much as a mother, our freedom to be a mother as much as a person."

The campaign, created by Ona, is using out-of-home in New York City, including Times Square billboards and subways.

It also includes an influencer component, with women happily sharing photos of themselves pumping while riding bikes, doing yoga, or at the office. Among them: professional surfer Bethany Hamilton, singer-songwriter Teyana Taylor and comedian Laura Clery.

Since its launch several years ago, Willow has liberated 130,000 from conventional pumps, and its customer data shows it saves women about 240 hours a year. About 93% of its users say the technology reduces the stress of breastfeeding.

That's important. The CDC says that while 84% of new moms start breastfeeding, only 58% are still at when their baby is six months old. And 60% of mothers do not breastfeed for as long as they first planned to.

While the pandemic baby-bust hasn't cut into Willow's sales, that decrease in births "speaks to the amount of stress that moms are under. It's more urgent than ever that we're able to provide solutions that make breastfeeding a little bit easier," O'Leary says.

The pandemic has sparked an increase in interest, she says. "For one thing, breastfeeding is considered the best way to protect babies from infectious diseases. And because the milk is self-contained, it's more hygienic than other options."

Interest has been strong among healthcare workers "because they are so concerned with pumping in a way that prevents the possibility of infection," O'Leary adds.

Willow is also working to make the pump more widely available through insurance coverage, which often reduces the cost by up to $150 and provides discounts for healthcare workers. Each of the influencers is also giving away a free pump to one of her followers.

O'Leary says that after its latest round of funding, at about $82 million, Willow is set to launch additional products in the femtech space later this year. All are aimed at motherhood.





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May 24, 2021 at 08:46AM
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Tim Cook Defends App Store Policies

5/24/2021

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Tim Cook Defends App Store Policies

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Apple CEO Tim Cook on Friday defended the company's tight App Store policies, telling a federal judge that the company's rules for apps benefit consumers as well as developers.

At the start of his four-hour long testimony, Cook told U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland that the App Store policies boost privacy and safety for iPhone and iPad users.

“Privacy from our point of view is one of the most important issues of the century,” he testified.

He added that privacy is built on “safety and security,” and that the app marketplace “would become a toxic kind of mess” if the company didn't vet apps.

Cook also said developers benefit from Apple's policies, because developers rely on “the store being a safe and trusted place.”

His remarks came on the last day of trial testimony in an antitrust lawsuit filed against Apple by Epic Games.

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Epic brought the case last August, after Apple removed the Fortnite game from the iOS app store. Apple did so after Epic began offering gamers the ability to make purchases directly from it, instead of through Apple's platform.

Apple requires game developers to use its payment platform for in-app purchases, and charges a 30% commission to developers that take in more than $1 million in revenue. Smaller developers pay only a 15% commission. Before removing Fortnite from the app platform, Apple garnered more than $100 million from the game, Apple executive Michael Schmid testified last week.

Epic contends Apple monopolizes the iOS app distribution market, and unlawfully forces developers to use its payment processing system.

Before Cook left the witness stand, Gonzalez Rogers herself questioned him about the company's requirement that in-app purchases go through Apple's payment platform.

“What is the problem with allowing users to have choice, especially in a gaming context, to have a cheaper option for content,” the judge asked Cook.

He answered that people “have a choice between many different Android models” or an iPhone, adding that the iPhone “has a certain set of principles behind it” regarding safety, security and privacy.

When Gonzalez Rogers pressed the Apple CEO on why the company wouldn't let consumers make in-game purchases outside its platform, he replied: “If we allowed people to link out like that, we would in essence give up our total return on our IP.”

The judge said it seemed the gaming apps were “generating a disproportionate amount of money,” for Apple, and may be subsidizing the free apps.

Cook responded that most apps on the App Store are free, but that those free apps increase traffic to the store, which gives other developers a larger audience to monetize.

Epic isn't the first one to accuse Apple of violating antitrust laws.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court revived a lawsuit by a group of consumers who alleged that Apple monopolizes app distribution for iPhones. The consumers argued that Apple's commission from developers gets passed on to app users.

That matter is pending in front of Gonzalez Rogers.

Regulators in Europe are also examining whether Apple's app store policies are anticompetitive.

Separately, the Interactive Advertising Bureau France and other business groups brought an antitrust complaint against Apple in Europe over new privacy settings that prohibit developers from tracking iPhone users without their explicit permission.

In March, authorities in Europe allowed Apple to move forward with the privacy controls.

Gonzalez Rogers is expected to decide later this year whether Epic proved its claims against Apple.





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May 24, 2021 at 08:17AM
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Google Must Face Privacy Claims For Allegedly Sending Data To App Developers

5/23/2021

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Google Must Face Privacy Claims For Allegedly Sending Data To App Developers

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Google must face claims it violated mobile users' privacy by allegedly sending analytics data about their online activity to outside developers, a federal judge ruled Friday.

In the ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco rejected Google's position that the case should be dismissed at an early stage on the grounds that the consumers consented to the alleged data transfers.

“As the present controversy throws into sharp relief, navigating Google’s user-facing privacy representations is a singularly fragmented affair,” Seeborg wrote. “Where, as here, a company’s public-facing statements are legitimately confusing, it is not the public’s fault for being confused.”

The decision stems from a class-action complaint brought last July by Anibal Rodriguez and other consumers.

The complaint focused on Google Analytics for Firebase -- a tool that allows developers to learn data about consumers' activity, including the website the user was visiting immediately before visiting the app. Google Analytics for Firebase can also collect data about browsing histories and search queries.

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Rodriguez and others alleged that Google uses the Firebase code “to collect users’ communications made via the apps on users’ devices,” regardless of the way users have configured Google's “Web & App Activity” settings.

The users said Google “intentionally created an illusion of user control” with its Web & App Activity setting. The page describing that setting says people's searches and activity from Google services will be saved in their Google account, if they turn on the Web & App Activity settings.

Google urged Seeborg to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that its Web & App Activity setting only deals with data stored in users' Google accounts, and not data sent to developers.

The company contended that the consumers consented to the alleged data transfers, arguing that apps using Firebase were required to tell consumers about the data collection.

“This case is therefore about the authorized collection of data that users knowingly provided to apps so the app developers could understand the data using Google’s tool,” the company wrote in a motion filed late last year.

Rodriguez and the other consumers countered that they believed the “Web & App Activity” setting would prevent their data from being shared, regardless of any app-specific settings.

Seeborg sided with the consumers on that point, ruling that if all the allegations in the complaint were proven true, the consumers wouldn't have consented to the data transfers.

“The average internet user is not a full-stack engineer; he or she should not be treated as one when Google explains which digital data goes into which digital buckets, and where the corresponding spigots might be found,” he wrote.

The ruling allows the consumers to proceed with claims for “invasion of privacy” and “intrusion upon seclusion,” as well as a claim that Google violated a state computer abuse law.

Seeborg dismissed several other counts, including a claim that Google violated the federal wiretap law. But the ruling allows the consumers to reformulate the claims that were dismissed and bring them again within 21 days.





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May 23, 2021 at 01:45PM
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