Merchants can leverage Daasity’s analysts and engineers, who are commerce data veterans, to become true data-driven organizations and drive their businesses forward

Daasity, a data and analytics platform built for omnichannel consumer brands, today launched the Daasity Data & Analytics Agency, which offers a suite of services enabling merchants using Daasity to offload or augment ELT (extract, load, transform) as well as strategic analytical needs. Merchants can leverage Daasity’s analysts and engineers, who are commerce data veterans, to become true data-driven organizations and drive their businesses forward.

The Daasity Data & Analytics Agency is uniquely qualified to enhance merchants’ value from the Daasity platform and unlock insights, develop custom analytics solutions, advise on and bolster corporate data strategy, and support organizations in the face of challenges, such as team turnover. This solution is significantly more cost effective for merchants not ready to hire a full-time data analyst or expand their data team. The Daasity Data & Analytics Agency can execute on data and analytics infrastructure needs, and it knows the Daasity platform intimately.

Daasity’s mission is, and always has been, to help merchants become data-driven organizations. The Daasity Data & Analytics Agency aligns with that vision, by providing technical support, data analytics experience, and data strategy to help merchants meet their goals. The benefits of the Daasity Data & Analytics Agency include:

• Significant cost and time savings on data and analytics
• Expertise in the Daasity platform and commerce landscape
• Ideal analytical environment creation so brands can focus on growth

“The Daasity Data & Analytics Agency has been a fantastic partner for us as we continue to expand our marketing and retail channels, becoming an omnichannel brand,” said Calvin Lammers, VP of digital and media, Nécessaire. “The agency has been tremendously helpful in unifying our data sources across our new channels, enabling us to maintain clear sightlines into our business performance and KPIs. Specifically, the agency has helped Nécessaire build custom dashboards, combining our digital and spend performance with new and repeat customer sales across DTC and Amazon, as well as total company sell-through reports with our retail partners.”

“Daasity is more than a platform, it’s a way to operate your business. CEOs and CFOs know that to be successful you have to build a plan, operate to that plan and, more importantly, track performance to that plan. While the Daasity platform is built to provide data, the Daasity Data & Analytics Agency is poised to help organizations build that plan and ensure that they are running a data-driven organization,” said Dan LeBlanc, Daasity co-founder and CEO.

New tool reveals top concerns of any Website’s privacy policy in seconds

Online privacy policies can be upwards of 100 pages in length and most users don’t have the legal skills, nor the time, to understand them. Today Security.org  introduced PrivacyAnalyzerGPT, a new security tool designed to assist consumers in comprehending and evaluating online privacy policies of any website in just seconds.

Users simply paste the URL to any privacy page into the PrivacyAnalyzerGPT at the link below and Security.org’s new tool puts on its legal hat and reveals privacy concerns:

https://www.security.org/digital-safety/privacy-policy-analyzer/

PrivacyAnalyzerGPT reveals the top privacy “red flags” of any website or app based on the personal data collected from users. It explains in simple terms how user data are used and if they’re shared with advertisers and other third parties. The new tool allows people to quickly decipher what type of personally identifiable information (PII) might be collected before they click and agree to what could be untrustworthy terms.

"In an increasingly interconnected digital landscape, your personal and browsing data is immensely valuable, not just to you, but to others, and should be protected,” said Yan Odnoralov, director of engineering of Security.org. “We believe that everyone should have the ability to make informed decisions about their privacy and data security, and the PrivacyAnalyzerGPT tool puts the power back in the hands of users enabling them to understand privacy policies without having to go to law school, not to mention the wealth of time it would take to read upwards of 100 pages of legalese.”

PrivacyAnalyzerGPT is free and designed to turn passive consumers into proactive online users protecting their privacy

Verisk, a leading global data analytics and technology provider, today announced that Samantha Vaughan has been named chief privacy officer, effective immediately.

Vaughn will lead the development and implementation of policies to protect the data entrusted to Verisk and will help ensure the integrity of Verisk’s data practices, regulation, and compliance.

“We’re excited to welcome Samantha to Verisk,” said Kathy Card Beckles, chief legal officer and corporate secretary, Verisk. “Data privacy has always been core to Verisk and central to our work with the global insurance industry. Samantha’s deep privacy expertise and experience in insurance regulation, corporate compliance and ethics will help us navigate evolving risks and build on Verisk’s reputation as a trusted partner.”   

Samantha joins Verisk from Dell Technologies, where she was the managing director and global head of Privacy Legal. Prior to Dell, she was the senior vice president, Corporate Ethics & Compliance and chief privacy officer for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Previously, Samantha worked for Prudential Financial, AIG and Selective and her career responsibilities have included information governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate compliance and ethics and contracts/commercial transactions, in addition to privacy and security. 

Samantha serves as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board on Compliance Programs for Fordham Law School and Co-Chair of the Ethisphere Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) Compliance and Privacy Working Group.

“I was impressed by the company’s longstanding commitment to data privacy, and I am looking forward to working alongside my Verisk colleagues to further strengthen our data policies and practices and in a changing landscape,” Vaughan said.

Kaltura empowers customers to expand services, gain actionable insights, and drive revenue growth with cloud TV add-ons

Kaltura, the Video Experience Cloud, announced today new enhancements to its Cloud TV and Streaming Platform, tailored specifically to meet the demands of TV operators and media customers. These advancements, developed and first introduced to customers in recent months, are designed to provide an innovative user experience while enabling customers to generate more revenue through additional product add-ons.

Kaltura’s best-in-class user interface is based on the concept of super aggregation, and was developed over the past two years using cross-device deployable react-native technology. The new front-end applications aggregate all basic and advanced features, which are already in use by several Kaltura customers, and are now available for mass deployment for all new and existing customers.

With a holistic Cloud TV solution that offers both backend and frontend functionality, Kaltura customers enjoy a one-stop-shop for their cloud TV needs, and can easily ensure that their user experience capabilities are seamlessly integrated across the backend and frontend.

The newest product additions to Kaltura Cloud TV and Streaming Platform are available across STBs, smart TVs, Android and Apple TV, mobile and web.

In response to the evolving needs of Kaltura’s growing cloud TV customer-base and their subscribers, Kaltura's Cloud TV platform now offers advanced capabilities in the form of product add-ons that allow customers to personalize the user experience, ensuring that their offerings effectively serve users' needs, enhance engagement and drive higher Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). Kaltura’s most recently released add-on features include:

• Business Insight: This add-on allows Kaltura Cloud TV customers to make concrete business decisions based on a better understanding of their user’s journey and interaction with the TV platform. The Business Insights add-on leverages Kaltura’s deep video and platform analytics to present multiple insightful dashboards customers can use to make service adjustments and business decisions, including User Consumption, Acquisition, Transaction, and Entitlements. Current customers using this add-on reported that they were able to increase user retention, engagement, and ARPU. This solution is powered by Kaltura’s partnership with Jump Data Driven.
• Shop-in-Shop Add-on: Building on Kaltura’s role as a super aggregator, this add-on enables TV operators to provide content providers the ability to manage their VOD portfolio within the operator’s shop and control the user experience, giving content providers their own space and audit tools to better track their manager’s activity.
• Advanced Monitoring and Management Capabilities: As part of Kaltura’s goal to provide customers with granular control and visibility of the Cloud TV SaaS system, Kaltura has enhanced the ability for customers to track the health of the system in real-time via a new dedicated dashboard, as well better manage and monitor multiple processes of the system, such as ingest of VOD, EPG management and others.

“Our telecom and media customers are growing, and looking to expand their services in competitive markets, both locally and internationally. They need better insights and more actionable data about their system to optimize current revenue streams, as well as about their audiences to drive new revenue streams," said Shuki Eytan, General Manager, Media & Telecom at Kaltura. “We are proud of the role Kaltura plays as this market transforms, and how we have been able to truly partner with our customers and help them execute their business strategies. With the expansion of streaming services for national media players and the expansion of super aggregators among telco players – we are excited to continue to propel this industry forward.”  

New Interoperable Data Clean Rooms Reduce Reliance on Single Provider Data Ecosystems

Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO), one of the world's largest out-of-home (OOH) media companies, has chosen Aqfer, a leading provider of big data marketing solutions, to significantly enhance secure data collaboration capabilities through the facilitation of Data Clean Rooms (DCR). Thanks to Aqfer and its products, CCO can securely leverage a brand's first-party data for OOH campaign planning, measurement, and optimization.

Data Clean Rooms have gained in popularity over the last few years as advertisers seek to adhere to regulatory and consumer privacy demands while collaborating with partners in  a secure environment. By layering in Aqfer's capabilities into its RADAR platform, CCO now provides a truly interoperable DCR framework. Brands and their agency partners can now collaborate with CCO on audience targeting and campaign amplification with improved audience behavior analysis, regardless of where the underlying data is stored. This means brands will not have to be locked into a singular provider's ecosystem to enjoy the benefits of RADAR while delivering a secure way for brands to unlock insights from sensitive data without sacrificing security, privacy, or performance.

"More and more data-driven brands and advertisers are recognizing the power of OOH to deliver their message to the right audience segments with measurable impact and at scale," says Jeremy Flynn, SVP, Data Products and Strategy, Clear Channel Outdoor. "Aqfer is helping us accelerate the adoption of OOH in the media mix by powering an interoperable DCR solution without compromising privacy, security, or the hassles of data transfers among multiple cloud providers."

"Fostering interopable secure data collaboration among brands, media companies, and their service providers while protecting consumer privacy is in Aqfer's DNA," says Marc Sabatini, Chief Strategy Officer at Aqfer. "Facilitating DCRs is a natural evolution of our technology that Clear Channel Outdoor utilizes in the partnership with Aqfer for their RADAR suite of solutions."

MAGNA Media Trials and Nexxen partnered to study the aftereffects of repetitive ads on viewers, brands and the streaming platforms that run them

Repeated ad exposures might not be a new phenomenon, but it doesn’t make the experience any less annoying for viewers, 87% of whom agree that they see too many of the same ads, according to new research by MAGNA’s Media Trials unit in partnership with Nexxen, a global, unified advertising technology platform with a specialization in video and Connected TV (“CTV”).

The study, It’s All in the Delivery: How Repeating Ads Affect CTV Viewers, Brands & Platforms, released today, leveraged controlled ad effectiveness testing with 1,246 streaming viewers to learn how they felt about repetitive advertising, which is an outlay of programmatic delivery systems and a focused pool of advertisers.

As part of the study, participants were exposed at varying frequencies – one, four or six exposures – to the same ad during a one-hour viewing session. Ads were provided by two participating brands, including athletic wear brand New Balance. The second participating brand is national restaurant chain Applebee’s.

While participants who saw the same ad six times peaked in awareness at 92% recall, negative associations spiked, too. Viewers who saw the same ad six times said the ad was “annoying” by 48% over average, and “disruptive to their overall experience” by 33%. Overexposure also eroded purchase intent, with a 16% decline among those who viewed an ad six times.

Beyond facilitating a negative viewing experience, repeated ads also had poor implications for both brands and the streaming platform. Among viewers, 83% believed that repeating ads was done intentionally. Further, 68% of viewers believe that it was the brand’s intention to repeat the ad. Streaming platforms are likewise implicated, with 44% of viewers believing that the platform intended to repeat the ad. True or not, these assumptions lend to broader implications, and potentially actions, led by viewers who are not satisfied with their viewing experience.

“Running a spot repeatedly during the same show might improve recall but at what cost? Study participants were clear on how frustrating it was to see the same ad again and again and this cast a shadow over the brand and the streaming network,” said Kara Manatt, EVP, Intelligence Solutions, MAGNA, which is IPG Mediabrands’ intelligence and investment unit. “Worst of all, advertisers are paying for these declines in purchase intent and simultaneously targeting consumers while turning them off to their brands.”

Additional findings revealed by the study include:

• Positive brand perceptions were hampered by ad frequency, too. For example, brands saw a decline from 25% (1 ad exposure) to 17% (6 ad exposures) in viewers thinking that the brand knows how to connect with them. Additionally, viewers who saw the ad 6 times were less likely to be excited by the brand (16%) compared to those who only saw the ad once (21%).
• Viewers are willing to take action to avoid ad overkill in various ways, including checking to see if another streaming service offers the show or movie (43%) and going as far as to terminate the subscription (19%). Altogether, 51% said they will take action in response to repeating ads.
• Purchase intent takes a nosedive with higher frequencies of repeated ad exposures, with a 16% decline in intent to purchase for those who saw the same brand ad 6 times.

“Both advertisers and broadcasters need to get to a place where viewers don’t notice a difference in the quality of the advertising experience on streaming compared to linear. Unfortunately, today, many ad servers are not equipped with the ability or are missing the adequate data to unify programmatic and direct demand while managing for frequency,” said Karim Rayes, Chief Product Officer, Nexxen. “The solution lies with platforms that have been purpose-built for CTV, which offers publishers the flexibility to manage their ad breaks in a way that won’t negatively impact the viewer’s experience and saves advertisers from wasting their valuable media dollars.”

Putting Accessibility First: Arkose Labs Empowers Users with Inclusive Digital Experiences

Arkose Labs, the global leader in bot management and account security, announced today that it has achieved WCAG compliance for its enforcement challenges via conformance with the WCAG 2.1 Level AA standard.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is an internationally recognized set of guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure websites and digital content are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Arkose Labs achieved WCAG certification by partnering with me2 accessibility, a highly experienced industry leader in web accessibility evaluations. With ten years of experience and more than 300 WCAG 2.1 accessibility audits, evaluations, and assessments, me2 conducted comprehensive evaluations using various methods to ensure Arkose Labs' compliance with every success criterion in the WCAG guidelines. Arkose Labs is the only bot detection and mitigation vendor with enforcement challenges that are both WCAG compliant and certified.

"Accessibility is not an afterthought for us; it's an integral part of our development and testing process," said Ashish Jain, Chief Technology Officer at Arkose Labs. "By prioritizing accessibility from the start, we ensure inclusive digital experiences for all users. We believe that everyone deserves equal access to our customers' products and services, and we are committed to removing any barriers."

Arkose Labs ensures that the widest possible range of consumers, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can use its enforcement challenges, like Arkose MatchKey. This commitment extends to addressing the four broad categories of disabilities:

1. Visual: Visual challenges are designed to accommodate most minor visual impairments. For users with more severe visual impairments or complete blindness, audio challenge provides an alternative solution.
   
   
2. Motor: Visual and audio challenges fully support keyboard compatibility, allowing seamless operation with a wide range of alternative input devices.
   
   
3. Auditory: Visual challenges accommodate any level of auditory impairment, so users can successfully engage with and solve the visual challenge.
   
   
4. Cognitive: Challenges use clear and simple language and offer user retries, to enhance user accessibility and ensure a positive experience.

"Our commitment to accessibility goes hand in hand with security, privacy, and usability," said Jain. "Unlike other speech-based alternatives, our innovative sound-based challenges provide superior protection against attacks using speech-to-text tools. Our audio challenge supports the same 109 languages as our visual challenges, surpassing our competitors' limited options which tend to max out around 13 languages. Importantly, our accessibility solution is seamlessly integrated within the challenge, eliminating the need for consumers to navigate away or disclose personal information. Arkose Labs prioritizes accessibility without compromising security, privacy, or consumer experience."