BMW Backtracks: ‘We Do Not Draw on Warranty Status’ For Targeted Ads

BMW has told Motoring Research its targeted billboard warranty adverts — which are claimed to use number plate registration technology to tailor public adverts to BMW drivers — do not actually draw upon vehicle warranty status. From a report: Rather, only publically available information is used. “There is no personalisation visible on the advert and no vehicle or customer data is…

Facebook Says It’s Standing Up Against Apple For Small Businesses. Some Of Its Employees Don’t Believe It.

Last Tuesday, Facebook launched what it portrayed as a full-throated defense of small businesses. But while the $750 billion company’s public relations effort has presented a united front with small businesses, some Facebook employees complained about what they called a self-serving campaign that bordered on hypocrisy, according to internal comments and audio of a presentation to workers that were obtained by…

Facebook’s Small Advertisers Say They’re Hurt by AI Lockouts

Small advertisers that rely on Facebook to spread marketing messages are up in arms over the social network’s automated ad systems, complaining that inflexible account blocking tools and a lack of customer assistance are hurting business. From a report: One digital marketer, Chris Raines, was setting up an advertising campaign on Facebook last week when his account abruptly stopped working. Raines…

Apple-Criticizing Banner Ads Now Added to Some of Facebook’s iOS Apps

Facebook added banner ads criticizing Apple into some of its iOS apps, 9to5Mac reports, in its ongoing war against Apple’s new privacy changes:
By tapping the Learn More button, the app opens an article written by Facebook in which the company says Apple’s policies announced at WWDC 2020 with iOS 14 will “harm the growth of business and the free internet.” Facebook…

Samsung Just Updated One of Its Phone Apps To Serve Customers Even More Ads

An anonymous reader shares a report: Ads are the worst, yet we see them everywhere. They fund the content we consume, for free, on a daily basis. It’s one thing to receive ads on a website you are going to for free, but it’s quite another when an OEM goes out of its way to force an app onto your phone…

Here Comes the Google Chrome Change that Worries Ad-Blocker Creators

CNET reports: With the next version of Chrome, Google is moving ahead with a plan to improve privacy and security by reining in some abilities of extensions used to customize the browser. The move had angered some developers who expected earlier it would cripple ad blockers. Manifest v3, the programming interface behind Google’s security plans, will arrive with Chrome 88 in…

Google Will Let You Limit the Alcohol and Gambling Ads You See

On Thursday, Google announced a new setting that lets people limit the alcohol- and gambling-related ads they come across. Gizmodo reports: Per the announcement, the feature will first roll out for YouTube ads in the U.S., before globally expanding to ads across YouTube and Google search in “early 2021.” Countries that already have legal limitations on ads in these sorts of…

YouTube and Peacock are Now Streaming James Bond Films For Free

The Verge writes: Maybe you’re feeling nostalgic for a classic James Bond film following Sean Connery’s death in late October. Or perhaps you’re simply feeling a gap given that the next film, No Time to Die, got pushed back to April 2021 or beyond. Either way, you can now binge a sizable selection of the James Bond collection completely for free…

Google Considers ‘Severe’ Penalties For Allegedly Deceptive Chrome Extension Maker

Engadget reports:
The Wall Street Journal has learned that Google is considering “severe penalties” against internet giant IAC (InterActive Corp) over allegedly deceptive practices in its Chrome extensions. The browser extras reportedly promise features that never materialize, point users toward additional ads, or even trick users into installing them. A Google audit reportedly found that some of IAC’s voting ads not only…

Does Digital Advertising Actually Work?

“This week’s Freakonomics podcast goes into depth at asking if digital advertising actually works,” writes Slashdot reader Thelasko:
Economist Steve Tadelis [a professor at U.C. Berkeley’s business school] was interested in answering that question while working for eBay. So, when eBay, in planning to renegotiate their deal with Bing, turned off their brand-keyword advertising, it created a natural experiment. TADELIS: “We could…