• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 17, 2023

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced data-matching capabilities for advertisers using AWS Entity Resolution through integrations with LiveRamp, TransUnion, and Unified ID 2.0.

The platform launched in July 2023. The integrations allow AWS customers to match and link records with data service provider datasets, and improve data with key demographic and psychographic information. This is intended to minimize the movement of data outside of AWS and removes the need to write custom code.

The goal is to help marketers and media planners benefit from higher-quality data to improve advertising and marketing personalization and measurement.

For data teams, the pre-built integrations help to develop complex workflows. From the AWS Management Console, customers can link records with these data service providers, in addition to using rule-based and machine learning-powered matching, without any expertise in entity resolution.

Better marketing and advertising experiences for customers across digital channels, social media networks, and advertising platforms these days also means protecting consumer data, but that is not always the case.

Last week, Google confirmed in its Privacy Sandbox timeline that two milestones are approaching in Q4 and Q1 2024 as part of Chrome-facilitated testing modes. This testing is primarily for organizations testing the Privacy Sandbox relevance and measurement APIs, however. As part of this process, Google will disable third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome Stable users.

This means that from Q1 2024, marketers can expect to see an increased portion of Chrome users on their site with third-party cookies disabled -- even those that are not actively participating in the Chrome-facilitated testing. This testing period continues through to Q3 2024. Google broke-down the process in three steps.

For now, at least, reports suggest the advertising industry still has a ways to go to protect consumers.

Websites continue to be mined for data, and some are more sensitive than others, according to a study from Feroot Security, a cybersecurity company, which analyzed hundreds of healthcare and telehealth websites. The research found that more than 86% collect and transfer data without obtaining consent from the user. More than 73% of login and registration pages have trackers, exposing personal health information.

Some of the most common tracking pixels were from Google, Microsoft, Meta, and ByteDance, according to the report.

About 15% of the tracking pixels from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, and ByteDance identified by Feroot read and collect a user’s keystrokes, which means they could identify IP addresses, billing information, names, numbers, and more sensitive information -- even medical diagnoses and treatments.