Big Data is playing a big role in the government's war on illegal immigrants. Palantir, a real-time data analytics firm that is sometimes compared with Cambridge Analytica, has been working with the U.S. government's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division to process a variety of consumer data streams to identify and target individuals who have a propensity for being illegal immigrants.

Programmatic continues to be one of several emerging technologies that are reshaping marketing and media-buying into the near future, according to a new report.

"If time-money gaps correct themselves, what about radio?" says GroupM's Brian Wieser. "The time-as-a-driver-of-spending argument really falls apart in the weakness of investment in radio."

If you ask me, that's where the real controversy should begin -- not with the duration-weighted impression, or common denominator -- but how value is assigned to them, because that's where the winners and losers will be made.

Watch for interest in cryptocurrencies to spike this week in the media industry, if not the ad biz as Facebook releases a white paper outlining its plans for investors and other stakeholders. The coin, which reportedly will be called "Libra," is expected to be backed by a consortium of financial and transactional partners, including Mastercard, PayPal, Uber, Visa and other members of The Libra Association.

As the rate of expansion of programmatic media-buying begins to decelerate, the focus is shifting to how vs. how much. That's the conclusion of the 2019 edition of the latest edition of Magna's semi-annual "Programmatic Report." Yes, the report continues to size the growth of the programmatic marketplace, noting that while it continues to expand at double-digit rates, it will only expand 18% this year vs. multiples of that only a few years ago.

In what appears to be a political media-buying first, the majority of digital buys made during the run-up to the 2018 midterm elections were bought programmatically.

MALAGA, SPAIN -- I have seen the future of real-time data-based marketing, and it's inside a restaurant that will be opening in downtown Los Angeles in a few weeks. The restaurant, which will be operated by Stockholm-based hospitality design firm Livit, is the 2.0 version of a living test lab it has been operating in Sweden for the past two years, and the most remarkable thing they both serve isn't culinary, it's data.

MALAGA, SPAIN -- Hola. I'm on assignment this week covering the I-COM Global Data Summit here, so keep an eye out over the next several days for some real-time coverage of presentations, roundtables and hackathons as some of the world's top marketers and marketing data scientists discuss the "race to the direct customer relationship."

Ad tech has hit the wall and has even begun to erode as marketers and agencies shift their focus to marketing technology solutions.