Episode 98: You Win Some, You Lose Some (Billions)

Katherine Druckman and Doc Searls talk to Petros Koutoupis about how big tech navigates the ad tech landscape, for better or worse.

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Special Guest: Petros Koutoupis.

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• Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet (FSG Originals x Logic): Hwang, Tim: 9780374538651: Amazon.com: Books — In Subprime Attention Crisis, Tim Hwang investigates the way big tech financializes attention. In the process, he shows us how digital advertising―the beating heart of the internet―is at risk of collapsing, and that its potential demise bears an uncanny resemblance to the housing crisis of 2008.
• Amazon has a $31 billion a year advertising business — Amazon revealed Thursday just how big its advertising business has become. It generated $31.2 billion in revenue in 2021, with fourth-quarter sales rising 32%, according to the retailer’s fourth-quarter earnings statement.
• Facebook and Google stocks have diverged, and the reason is Apple — Facebook’s apps rely almost entirely on Apple and Google for distribution. So when Apple changed its privacy policy last year, limiting the ability of app developers to target users, Facebook was suddenly stripped of one of its most important assets.
• A public apology - on screwing up by not questioning assumptions - my talk at #BIF10 - Ethan Zuckerman — About a month ago, I wrote an article about a simple idea. I asked whether anyone really believed that advertising should be the main way we supported content and services on the internet. Given how poorly banner advertising on the web worksGiven that nobody likes banner ads, and given that the current system puts users under surveillance, which in turn seems to inure us to government surveillance, I wondered whether there might be a better way.
• Doc Searls Weblog · Apple vs (or plus) Adtech, Part I — If you haven’t seen it yet, watch Apple’s Privacy on iPhone | tracked ad. In it a guy named Felix (that’s him, above) goes from a coffee shop to a waiting room somewhere, accumulating a vast herd of hangers-on along the way. The herd represents trackers in his phone, all crowding his personal space while gathering private information about him. The sound track is “Mind Your Own Business,” by Delta 5.
• Fighting FLoC and Fighting Monopoly Are Fully Compatible | Electronic Frontier Foundation — Are tech giants really damned if they do and damned if they don’t (protect our privacy)?
• Facebook says Apple iOS privacy change will cost $10 billion this year — Facebook said on Wednesday that Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature would decrease the company’s 2022 sales by about $10 billion.
• Google Drops FLoC and Introduces Topics API to Replace Tracking Cookies for Ads — Google on Tuesday announced that it is abandoning its controversial plans for replacing third-party cookies in favor of a new Privacy Sandbox proposal called Topics, which categorizes users' browsing habits into approximately 350 topics. The new mechanism, which takes the place of FLoC (short for Federated Learning of Cohorts), slots users' browsing history for a given week into a handful of top pre-designated interests (i.e., topics), which are retained only on the device for a revolving period of three weeks.
• GDPR enforcer rules that IAB Europe's consent popups are unlawful - Irish Council for Civil Liberties — Google, Amazon, and the entire tracking industry relies on IAB Europe’s consent system, which has now been found to be illegal following complaints coordinated by ICCL.  EU data protection authorities find that the consent popups that plagued Europeans for years are illegal. All data collected through them must be deleted. This decision impacts Google’s, Amazon’s and Microsoft’s online advertising businesses.
• Case number: DOS-2019-01377 Concerning: Complaint relating to Transparency & Consent Framework