One of Apple’s new features, iCloud Private Relay, can be sidestepped to leak users’ IP addresses, according to an analysis in The Hacker News. 

The new offering was introduced earlier this week with iOS 15. It is an open-source initiative that provides web browsers and mobile applications with real-time communication, The Hackers News writes. 

The goal is to improve anonymity by shielding a user’s IP address, location, and DNS requests from websites and network service providers, the report says.

But the feature, which  routs users' internet traffic on the Safari browser through two proxies, is available to iCloud+ subscribers running iOS 15 or macOS 12 Monterey and above.

FingerprintJS writes that if you “read the IP address from an HTTP request received by your server, you'll get the IP address of the egress proxy," according to The Hacker News. "Nevertheless, you can get the real client's IP through WebRTC."

The report continues that FingerprintJS “said it alerted Apple to the problem, with the iPhone maker already rolling out a fix in its latest beta version of macOS Monterey. However, the leak has remained unpatched when using iCloud Private Relay on iOS 15.”

Apple had not responded to a request for comment at deadline.

Google executives are quietly negotiating with their counterparts at ByteDance and Facebook to get the data it needs to index and rank videos on TikTok and Instagram, respectively, in search results, according to three people briefed about the discussions.

It’s become a question of whether or not the companies will share the data required to rank and display the videos, according to the report by The Information.

Google told The Information these are "standard discussions," and that it is always looking for new ways to organize information.

The news is reminiscent of a deal between Google and Twitter that dates back to 2009, when the companies struck a partnership that would display real-time Twitter results in Google searches.

On October 21, 2009, Marissa Mayer, then vice president of Search Products and User Experience at Google, wrote: “We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months.”

The negotiations could be continued efforts from a test that began in December 2020, where Google served Instagram and TikTok videos in their own dedicated carousel in the Google search app for mobile devices. It aggregated short-form videos from TikTok and Instagram.

But even that test expanded on another pilot launched earlier that year where Google had first introduced a carousel of “Short Videos” within Google Discover, the personalized feed found in the Google mobile app.

Google is trying to persuade the European Commission to engage in talks to settle its antitrust investigation of Google’s digital advertising business, according to a Reuters source.

The commission is set to probe whether Google has been limiting third-party access to user data for use in advertising on its sites and apps, while employing the data to its own advantage.

The source “familiar with the matter” declined to provide details, and neither Google or the commission commented on the report.

Three EU antitrust cases over the past decade have already cost Google more than $9 billion in fines.

In hearings in Europe’s second-highest court next week, Google will seek to overturn a record $5.15-billion EU antitrust fine resulting from a 2018 European Commission ruling that it had used its Android mobile operating system to thwart competition.

If Google can reach a settlement in the latest EU probe, it would avoid a fine as well as a finding of wrongdoing, according to Reuters.

However, in the EU’s past three Google cases, antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager chose to levy sanctions rather than negotiate settlements.

If Vestager did agree to settlement talks, that process could take months or years.

In June, Google settled antitrust charges brought by French regulators by agreeing to pay nearly $270 million in fines, stop giving its own services preferential treatment on its advertising platforms, and changing its systems to make it easier for competitors to use its online advertising tools. The company did not admit any wrongdoing.

While the biggest top-of-mind issue should be why pumpkin spice lattes are being sold in 90-degree weather, in reality, it’s winter and the holiday shopping season we must focus on.

Adobe’s Digital Economy Index discovered that consumers spent $844 billion online from March 2020 to February 2021—an amount that equates to a holiday season spend.

Last year, we were cautiously optimistic about retail and spending, given the promise of a vaccine and the world reopening.

This year, with the rise and the spread of multiple variants, we continue to be cautious and optimistic. The difference this time is, brands must be prepared for holiday shopping in all forms: online, retail, via social media shopping channels.

Is your brand game strong in each element? If not, what’s your Plan B? If one doesn’t exist, now is the time to make sure one takes shape.

Here are some ways brands can prepare for a hybrid, multimonth, holiday shopping season.

Social is more than Facebook and Instagram. Facebook and Instagram should remain in your social marketing budget, but it’s time to branch out, especially if your target audience is Gen Z. Consider widening your breadth of social media outlets to reach more consumers.

TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest reach a wide audience of varying ages. Snapchat even publishes a yearly “Celebration Cycle” to explain the path to purchase and what products are trending.

Shopper marketers, take note: Entice consumers in-store with codes and promotions that take them online to interact with your brand. Take offline activities online.

Ready for your AR close-up. Is your brand AR-ready? AR (augmented reality) experiences lead to purchases on mobile devices. Consider a holiday campaign that uses AR and ties into the retail experience in-store, which is not going away.

Hybrid shopping is here to stay. The pandemic taught consumers that anything can be purchased online—even groceries! Many consumers will be happy returning to normalcy, which means stepping foot inside a store. Others may feel differently, and prefer to continue down the road of online shopping for anything and everything.

Brands must ensure both advertising strategies are strong, and this may mean divesting some of the marketing budget from one medium to another. Digital may see percentages close to retail’s cut, depending on where infection rates stand. At the end of the day, foot traffic remains high, even when mask mandates are in effect. But be prepared to shift budgets on a moment’s notice if things change.

Just as shopping will remain a hybrid experience, so should your marketing plans. Don’t place all your eggs on in-store or all digital. Connect with shoppers in as many places as possible.

Go big or go home. Consumers aren’t cutting back on spending; quite the opposite. It’s the way these purchases are made that’s ever-changing.

Expect this holiday season to be big on spending. Consumers plan to go all out to make up for the Zoom holiday season most families had last year.

Brands must do the same. Offer deals before Black Friday, for consumers looking to shop early. Ensure that your brand’s digital presence is seamless and up to date. If more than half of holiday purchases are online, make sure your website and supply chain are ready for the influx of traffic.

How is your company readying for the influx of sales this holiday season?

Simpli.fi added CTV Retargeting this week, expanding its Performance CTV offering and its focus on programmatic advertising and agency management software.

This latest capability enables advertisers to retarget consumers who were previously served a CTV impression with a variety of ad types. The idea is to drive higher performance at a lower average cost.

“We take users who have been exposed to a connected TV ad and build an audience around it,” said Ryan Horn, senior vice president of marketing at Simpli.fi. “It gives our advertisers the ability to retarget the consumer with a different creative ad like display or video or mobile, for a slightly lower cost.”

The data used to target the ad can include addressable, behavioral, and first-party data. Horn said if someone watches a connected TV show and ad space became available at auction, Simpli.fi would bid on the ad space using all the available data.

The number of connected TV devices in U.S. households has grown significantly over the past year. About 82% of U.S. TV households have at least one connected TV device.

In 2021, Simpli.fi has run more than 32,000 CTV campaigns for about 8,200 unique advertisers.

The data also suggests that 60% of adults watch video via a connected TV device at least weekly in 2021 -- up from 59% in 2020, 52% in 2019, 40% in 2016, and 10% in 2011.

Retargeting is not new for Simpli.fi. The company got its start in search retargeting, with the ability to serve ads online based on keyword data from search to contextual. That expanded into geolocation, addressable and household-level targeting.

Simpli.fi can use search targeting to find the appropriate audience for the CTV ad.

If someone searches on a specific keyword or for a specific product, the company would target the CTV ad toward a specific advertiser. The company’s cross-device graph makes it possible to pair the correct consumers with the brand.

Horn expects many more advancements in CTV, especially around attribution and targeting.

Alaska Airlines has signed on for a new service from Airship that helps marketers drive and automate opt-ins on mobile after Apple’s rollout of iOS !5 and Android 12 and the Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) on Monday.    

The new phones provide consumers with more control over when and how they get notifications and alerts from apps.

Airship’s marketer-friendly Preference Center enables users to create and manage customers’ opt-in choices without ongoing developer support or app updates to the App Store or Google Play, the company claims.

Integrated within Airship’s SaaS Customer Engagement Platform, the Preference Center allows marketers to guide consumers to their preference center through contextually triggered in-app messages or cross-channel journeys for onboarding, loyalty enrollment and opting in for new subscription content, the company says. 

In addition, marketers can automatically combine opt-in selections with customers’ mobile behaviors for hyper-personalized messaging, it adds.

They also can track list opt-ins, review analytics reports and create multiple subscription lists spanning popular topics, all without developer support.  

While not a first for email or SMS, the service is a new one for app messaging, the company says. 

Alaska Airlines reportedly is one of several name brands on board with the service.  

“As pandemic restrictions lift and broad-scale travel resumes it’s absolutely vital that we connect our customers to the best values and broader inspiration to satisfy pent-up wanderlust,” says Dave McCormick, managing director, product & design for Alaska Airlines. 

McCormick adds: “Airship’s Preference Center will provide an easy and efficient way to ensure marketing messages do not diminish the role our mobile app plays as a real-time travel companion, notifying customers of when they can check-in or if there happens to be a gate change.”

Apple’s new MPP will prevent marketers from using invisible pixels to collect open-rate and geographical-location information about their recipients.

It is not known how many consumers will opt in to this service. Roughly 35% to 40% of email subscribers open their mail through Apple clients.